
PKESLNTED BY 



33i- 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

THEIR PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

THEIR PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT 



A Thesis presented at the University of 

Minnesota for the Degree of 

Doctor of Philosophy 



BY 



JOHN ERNEST MERRILL, B.A. 



IbartforO Seminary ipress 

Hartford, Conn. 
1894 



Hl6 
.9 

'3 5 



Copyright, 1894, by 
John Ernest Merrill 



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Tja'01 



The Case, Lockivood &f Brainard Co., Printers, Hartford, Conn. 






PREFACE 

The following pages contain a presentation of some histori- 
cal bearings of the theory of the moral ideal. One of their 
results is to bring to that theory the weight of an historical 
confirmation. 

Part I is intended as the metaphysical basis for and intro- 
duction to the historical study which occupies Part II. 

The paragraph entitled Causality, at the close of each sec- 
tion in Part II, is intended simply to point out the causality of 
the ideal in the development of the institution in hand. While 
this is a matter of no little interest and importance, its exhibi- 
tion is not the main object of the thesis' argument, whence the 
skeleton-like form of statement, and the smaller type. 

Obviously, the most difficult problem has been the ascer- 
tainment of the ideal. In the later ages, and in some of the 
earlier, there is literary material of the times from which we 
get a tolerably clear idea. But in other cases, the method is, 
of necessity, one of insight. The ideal inferred from a single 
institution, finding verification as the ideal of an age, when 
applied as such to that age's other institutions, has thus an 
historical presumption established in its favor. And if it coor- 
dinates in an historical development with the ideals of other 
ages, obtained by a similar method, or more especially with 
those revealed in literature of the times, the ideal may be re- 
garded as substantially correct. 

In reading Part II, it will be of value to keep in mind the 
development of any single institution as a whole. Otherwise 
the presentation of its early stages, as its original, and for us 
basal form, its point of departure, will seem little else than a 

(S) 






6 PREFA CE 

rehearsal of facts of common knowledge. It will be helpful, 
also, to have well fixed in mind the course of development of 
the ideal as one follows the development of the corresponding 
institutions. In both these matters, the paragraphs entitled 
Causality and the charts at the end of each chapter may 
render assistance. 

Appended is a list of the authorities which have been con- 
sulted, in part or in whole, in the preparation of the thesis. 
Especial indebtedness should be acknowledged to the last 
chapter of Schurman's " Ethical Import of Darwinism " for its 
suggestiveness in the early consideration of the general subject, 
to Green's " Prolegomena to Ethics," to Andrews' " Institutes 
of General History," and to Wilson's "The State"; also to 
various persons who have given helpful criticism, and to Pro- 
fessor Williston S. Hough, in charge of the Department of 

Philosophy. 

JOHN ERNEST MERRILL 

November 23, 18Q4 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Preface 

Table of Contents 

Thesis . 



Page 

5 
7 
9 



PART I: METAPHYSICAL 



Chapter I : The Ideal 

Introductory; Basis of Moral Theory, End of Conduct 
Definitions of the Ideal, with consideration of objections 
Development of the Ideal 
Racial and National Ideals 



13-24 



Chapter II : Institutions 



25-30 



Definitions 

Sanctions and Causes of Institutions 
Change in Institutions 
Classification of Institutions 



Chapter HI : Static Relation of Ideals and Institutions. 
Correspondence 



Their 



31-35 



Introductory 

Institutions from the point of view of the Ideal 
The Ideal from the point of view of Institutions 
Institutions and the Ideal constitute one whole 
Objections considered 



Chapter IV : The Parallel Development of Ideals and Institu- 
tions 36-38 



Proofs and Objections 
Development is always progress 
Direction of Progress 



Chapter V : Dynamic Relation of Ideals and Institutions. 
Priority and Causality of Ideals 



39-41 



Introductory 

Priority 

Causality 



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8 TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PART II : HISTORICAL 

Page 

Chapter I : Parallel Development of Greek Ideals and Institu- 
tions 45-72 

Preliminary 

Development of the Ideal 

Parallel Development of Institutions relating to Subjugation of 

Nature, Social Organization, and Individual Culture 
Other Parallel Developments 
Chart 

Chapter II : Parallel Development of Roman Ideals and Institu- 
tions 73-1 13 

Development of the Ideal 

Parallel Development of Institutions relating to Subjugation of 

Nature, Social Organization, and Individual Culture 
Chart 

Chapter III : Parallel Development of Ideals and Institutions 

in the Roman World 114-132 

Preliminary; Influence of Greece on Rome 

Development of the Ideal 

Parallel Development of Institutions relating to Subjugation of 

Nature and Social Organization 
Chart 

Chapter IV : Parallel Development of Teutonic Ideals and In- 
stitutions 133-172 

Preliminary 

Development of the Ideal 

Parallel Development of Institutions relating to Subjugation of 

Nature, Social Organization, and Individual Culture 
Chart 

Conclusion 173 

List of Authorities 174-175 



THESIS 



HISTORY SHOWS A PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS 
AND THE MORAL IDEAL. 

IN THIS DEVELOPMENT, THE IDEAL HAS BEEN PRIOR TO 
AND CAUSALLY CONNECTED WITH ITS CORRESPONDING INSTI- 
TUTIONS. 



"The great motors of the race are moral, not intellectual" 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 



Part I 



METAPHYSICAL 



Chapter I 
THE IDEAL 

In the solution of any problem, or the development of any 
truth, there are always certain considerations which, while not 
themselves directly the matter of investigation, are so vitally 
connected with the subject in hand that their early study be- 
comes a necessity. Thus, doubtless the meaning of the terms 
"ideal" and "institution" is popularly understood, in a general 
way, and perhaps not a few are aware of their peculiar ethical 
signification. Yet it will not be unwise for us to analyze them 
each quite carefully, in order that we may be sure of their 
exact connotation. 

Any true system of morality or of ethical teaching must 
ultimately rest, of course, upon facts which are 
common to human nature. And more than introductory — 

... . r . . . Basis of Moral 

this, it must be founded upon characteristics Theory 

which belong to all men as such ; it must find 
its abiding basis in the inherent character of humanity. What 
this foundation is, a short process of elimination will discover. 

All men have physical bodies and exercise the functions of 
life. Their every activity is a manifestation that they are 
physically alive. But in this they do not differ essentially from 
the animals. In fact, the difference is not so much one of 
function as of structure, and in both structure and function 
animals are more widely separated from each other than some 
of them are from man. 

Again, in the higher field of intellect, all men have minds 
and perform certain mental operations which are proof of their 
powers of reasoning. Yet here, two difficulties present them- 
selves. In the first place, animals seem in a measure to join in 
this (when, however, it comes to abstract reasoning, we do not 
find them able to accompany us), and in the second, the highest 
and lowest degrees of mental ability in man are so far apart 
that a single intellectual criterion cannot be the basis of an 

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14 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



universal morality. Wherever the standard may be placed, it is 
too high for some and too low for others. It cannot meet the 
conditions of including only persons and yet fully including all 
persons. What we find true of cognition and mental processes 
as such is true also of feeling. On the one hand, animals 
share with us the capacity for emotion, though we cannot posit 
for them what we know as the higher spiritual joys, and on the 
other, in matters of feeling, men are not on an equality with 
one another. For we know how some have warm and passion- 
ate natures, and others are very phlegmatic. Thus, although 
all men, and that to the exclusion of animals, can grasp abstract 
ideas, and though they can experience the higher feelings of 
happiness and joy, neither mind nor feeling per se is fitted to 
serve as a basis for morality. 

And what of the will ? Here again, at first sight, the 
animals seem to be sharers with man, and in many instances to 
choose to do certain things — at any rate, they differentiate 
between objects which are set before them, and take one in 
preference to the other. However, animal and human choices 
are not identical. This is no place, nor is there time or need 
for a discussion of animal consciousness and instinct or of the 
doctrine of Free-Will. Suffice it for our present purpose to 
say — what will readily be received — that human choices are 
distinguished by the fact that they are related to objects which 
are desired by the subject, whose attainment by himself he 
wills, objects which he conceives himself as attaining. The 
animal takes things as they are presented to him ; man, how- 
ever, as he acts has in view an end, the attainment by himself 
of some object. And it is upon the existence of such a con- 
ception in man, upon the fact of human self-consciousness, 
that human volition rests. Nor is there a differentiation 
here between man and man ; all are on an equality. Every 
individual must and does make choices continually, and 
each choice is such without reference either to the loftiness 
of knowledge or to the variableness of feeling — although 
the three together are necessary to constitute the whole 
of an act of will. Thus while a capacity of no animal, self- 
consciousness is yet characteristic of every man. As the 
only capacity peculiar to him and yet universally active in him, 
it must be the ultimate foundation of any theory of moral 
action. 



THE IDEAL jc; 

Settling thus on self-consciousness as the necessary basis 
of moral theory, we next inquire what is the 
end of conduct, for that is the fundamental End of conduct 
question of all ethical study. Many men have 
attempted various answers. Some have been optimistic, some 
pessimistic ; some based on theology, some on the results of 
physical science ; some have been dogmatic and some skeptical, 
and a very few have been critical. But there in one solution 
which is competent to cover every particular case. That a man 
always acts to satisfy some desire will be generally admitted ; 
he never chooses to do that to which he is not prompted by 
some longing. The end, the good, may therefore be generically 
defined as the satisfaction of desire. 

But in the whole of every man's life there is one predom- 
inant end ; his entire energy is concentrated upon the produc- 
tion of some single result. He has one primary object of 
desire to which all appetites and desires of the moment are 
compelled to become subordinate. What is it ? It is, to be 
sure, the satisfaction of desire, but what does this formal 
answer signify ? In short, to put the central question, does a 
man will the possession of things or the performance of deeds ? 
Obviously the latter, for no object can give satisfaction. A man 
is satisfied, not when he has what he has been seeking, for by 
common experience he then desires something more, but when 
he is obtaining the object of his desire. It is not the thing 
itself, but its attainment, the necessary life and conduct, that 
can satisfy. Not the having of objects, but their attainment is 
the end. And so it is that man wills the realization of a self 
conceived by him as doing certain things ; he wills the fulfill- 
ment of an ideal of himself. At this he aims. In its general 
direction, according to the Socratic teaching, he does all his 
moral walking. And with the fulfilment of this ideal there 
goes hand in hand the progressive satisfaction of his desire. 

In a general way this sets forth the nature of the moral 
ideal ; but we seek a more particular definition. 
T. H. Green is the chief representative of the Definitions of the 

,1 , .. . . , . , , , , Ideal — Definition 

theory, and it is to him that we therefore turn. from Green 
From his " Prolegomena to Ethics " we get the 
statement, "The moral ideal is an active idea of common 
good." ' The definition will bear considerable expansion. 

1 These are not Green's words, but rather a crystallization of what he writes, Prolegomena, p. 219. 



l6 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

1. The ideal is first an idea. This accords with the su- 
premacy of reason in man. Yet we should bear it prominently 
in mind that, as we have already noted, the reason is only a 
part of human nature. Green exhibits in turn the relations of 
intellect and desire, desire and will, and intellect and will, and 
then lays great emphasis on the fact that such a distinction is 
only logical. 1 In the individual, all the faculties are massed 
together, acting and reacting upon each other. So the ideal 
is primarily an idea, but this does not fully describe it. 
Desire and will each have their part, and the ideal bears peculiar 
marks which distinguish it from the simple idea. 

2. For it is next an idea of the good, of that which satisfies 
desire. This satisfaction of desire is, as we have seen, the un- 
varying characteristic of the good. However, it aside, the ob- 
jects of desire seem as many as men themselves. Yet we may 
distinguish by the professed objects of their desire two classes 
of people, those who in their thought identify the good and 
good things, and those who identify the good with good charac- 
ter. The fallacy of the quest of good things has been already 
hinted at, but in ordinary life this is not so apparent as might 
perhaps be expected. No doubt there are many who are led 
astray by the former of these two ideas, by the glitter of the 
things which appear; and they plunge into various undertakings 
which, by common report, will " bring a return." But as satis- 
fying desire, it is impossible that the good should be a thing, a 
stationary end at which one may aim. The ideal and its mani- 
festation must be of a similar character. The form of the 
manifestation and of the ideal must be of one kind. As the 
ideal of the sculptor, from the nature of his work, must be a 
physical shape — though expressing certain other things — so 
the ideal of the moral agent, like its manifestation, must be a 
life. The true identity is of the good and good character, or, in 
its manifestation, the good life. 

3. The ideal, which is an idea of good, is an idea of com- 
mon good. And it must be this. For man is by nature a 
social animal, and the formulation of the end must be in terms 
of his nature. The theory which rests on his personality as 
self-conscious cannot reject that personality as also social. 



1 Green : Ibid., Book II, Chap. 2. 



THE IDEAL 1 7 

One brushes against his fellows every day. His continued 
existence is dependent more or less upon their effort. Their 
lives are inextricably interwoven with his. And if he should 
seriously attempt to plan his life so as to leave them completely 
out of account, not only would he find it impossible, but his 
own activity would be greatly hampered by any movement in 
that direction. The fact remains that men are in social rela- 
tions, that " no man liveth unto himself " ; and the ideal must, 
therefore, be an ideal of common good. 

4. The ideal is, further, an active idea of common good. 
Owing to this is its peculiar function as the guide of conduct. 
Ideas of common good are as thick as leaves in Vallambrosa. 
There a^e, for instance, our " castles in the air " and our plans 
that we never even begin to realize ; there are the Utopias of 
the poets and the social philosophers, and the — to many — 
visionary schemes of the communists and^socialists. But for each 
man, there is one idea of the good — he may call it his " per- 
manent purpose" or his "predominant end" — which we can 
designate as active. This is the idea by which he regulates his 
action, and to which, as nearly as possible, he makes his con- 
duct correspond, the idea which is at once the cause and the 
goal of his activity, to whose fulfillment he bends all his energy. 
It is his ideal. 

The moral ideal is, thus, an idea of the good, an idea of 
common good, and an active idea of common good. 

Some further characteristics of the ideal are brought to 
light by another definition which seems to us 
to contain some truth : The moral ideal is the A second 

incarnation in idea of those principles of action Definition 

which are considered morally ideal. It is true 
that the good is, in the ultimate analysis, the ground of mo- 
rality. But principles of action, based to be sure on the nature 
of the good, are commonly in men's minds in deciding specific 
cases. And it is from this point of view, viz. : of principles of 
action, that they attempt to formulate their ideal. 1 

1. It is worth while to notice in the first place that, when 
they do this, they possess at once the necessary thought of the 
ideal as enjoining activity, of which we have just been speaking 
in connection with the previous definition. For moral rules 

1 Muirhead sets forth a similar theory. Elements of Ethics, page 64, paragraph 27. 



j8 ideals and institutions 

and principles have no other purpose than the guidance of con- 
duct. They exist on the supposition that a man will do some- 
thing, and their business is to direct him how to act, both at all 
times and in particular cases. So it is that the ideal commands 
action according to those principles of action which are consid- 
ered morally ideal. 

2. The definition of the ideal as an incarnation in idea 
answers also to the form of our common recognition of moral 
command and moral inspiration. Their source, we readily per- 
ceive, is an ideal of myself as doing certain things. I have 
before my mind a sort of incarnation of the principles of moral- 
ity. This is my ideal man and I try to be like him. 1 It may 
be that, philosophically speaking, such imitation is rather a low 
sort of action. Most probably the feeling against it arises from 
our common observation of people who copy appearances, while 
lacking the reality which these should express. But the objec- 
tion is here not a vital one, as we shall presently see. 

3. Beyond what has been said, we further remark {a) that 
our definition thoroughly agrees with the organic unity of the 
moral life, and (b) that it emphasizes the fact that morality is 
first individual. In regard to the former, the moral life does 
not follow one rule here and another there ; but, all through, it 
is one on the basis of a mutually agreeing set of principles. In 
harmony with this is the thought of the ideal as an incarnation. 
With respect to the latter, society is a whole, but it exists 
through individual action ; and the ideal commands, not activity 
on the part of society, but social action on the part of individ- 
uals. To this, likewise, the idea of incarnation adds emphasis, 
for by no possibility could such a formulation be of society, or 
include in itself more than a single person. 

There are certain considerations, more or less weighty, 
which may be urged against this definition. 

In the first place, the thought of a picture 
objections to this or form of any kind, the incarnation of certain 
Definition principles, is rather materialistic. The error of 

thinking that this is the case arises, of course, 
from the use of the word " incarnation " ; but if it be noted 
that it is an " incarnation in idea," the difficulty will be ob- 



1 Similarly Green, ibid., p. 205. " By a moral ideal we mean some type of man or character or 
personal activity considered as an end in itself." 






THE IDEAL 



19 



viated. To be sure, incarnation means, literally, embodiment ; 
but it does not necessarily refer to some particular shape and 
form. Instead, it directs attention to those general features of 
nature rather than physique which characterize humanity. It 
calls on us to think of various characteristics under the general 
notion of man. And we need to put alongside our objection to 
this form of statement, the fact that many rules of high mo- 
rality fail to affect men's lives, because of their abstraction and 
unreality. Men say they cannot conceive themselves, or any 
real man, as acting in accord with them. 

Again, some one may suggest that we are making the ideal 
an imagination. Right — though not in the way the criticism 
is intended. The reason why we are accustomed to decry im- 
aginations and to call them vain is that they are commonly 
thought of as not founded upon, or as contrary to, fact and 
principle. In some way, we have come to confine the word ex- 
clusively to this signification, but without sufficient reason. 
Though based on facts and principles, creations of the mind are 
still imaginations. So this ideal is an imaging of myself as act- 
ing according to principles of action, those principles which are 
considered morally ideal — but it is not a vain imagination. 

A more serious objection is that to which we have already 
alluded, that this definition would make the moral life one of 
imitation, with the implication that it would lack self-determina- 
tion. But by education we are all mimics. We do from our 
early days what we see others do ; in fact, we are taught to be 
like them. In process of time, however, one notices in the 
growing boy or girl the development of individuality. His self- 
hood appears, both in what he says and in what he does. Are 
we to say that the fundamental characteristic of conduct has 
changed, or that there has been a change in the pattern ? It 
would seem the latter. Personality cannot have come in as a 
new factor. What we notice is its development, and this means 
that self-consciousness has been present in the imitation of 
earlier examples, as well as of later ones ; only in the latter, it 
is present in greater power. The crude ideal of the child is 
almost entirely external ; it is the father or the mother, or some 
other older person. As he grows up, it assumes a more inward 
form. He adds to it certain factors which are not present in 
the father or the mother. He copies from his playmates, he 



20 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

acquires new ideas of life from what he reads or hears read ; 
and so the pattern of his life becomes a more and more hetero- 
geneous combination, involving elements from all his surround- 
ings. This complex example, so far as he considers it as such, 
is his ideal of action. When he begins to reason about con- 
duct, the ideal is compelled to assume a more consistent form. 
Yet, in any case, it is the sort of a man he would be. In two 
extreme instances we find the manifestation of this. The little 
boy wants to be a man just like his father. The Christian man 
makes confession of his aim to be like Jesus Christ. And all 
men in ordinary business, and in scholarly pursuits, know those 
who are to a large extent the living incarnations of their ideal, 
and whom they endeavor to imitate. 

We may note, too, that this definition is in most close ac- 
cord with the language of the religious life. We instinctively 
recall such phrases as, "And be ye imitators of God." The 
subject of Thomas a Kempis' book also suggests itself, "The 
Imitation of Christ." And beyond these, we remember that 
the ideal of moral perfection which Christianity presents is the 
center of its peculiar power as an ethical system. 

Another objection may be that this definition would make 
the ideal definite and clearly understood, while, as a matter of 
fact, we know only its general direction. Certain of the road- 
way to the country which we seek, we are yet in truth unable 
clearly and fully to describe it. But as the incarnation of prin- 
ciples, its definiteness is exactly equal to our moral insight. 
The clearness of the outline of the ideal, and the distinctness 
of our division between right and wrong is exactly correspond- 
ent to our knowledge. The ideal is definite just in proportion 
as it leads one to unite himself with specific desires, as means 
to its fulfillment. 

Since the basis of the moral ideal is man's peculiar nature 
as a self-conscious being, it follows that every 

General Objection man ^ & ^ ^^j such j Q kind ag that ^ 

to Theory of the 

ideal definition of which we have been outlining. 

For it is a part of his nature, the moral side of 
his self-consciousness. Many men, however, do not confess the 
possession of any such ideal ; in fact, they say their conduct is 
guided in other ways. Some seek pleasure in what they do, 
some act according to utilitarian considerations, and some are 



THE IDEAL 21 

guided by an intuitive knowledge of right and wrong, while 
others aim at the greatest length, breadth, and depth of life, 
and still others control everything by the inexorable commands 
of right reason. These are not to be thought so many argu- 
ments against our theory, though they might seem so at first 
sight, for in their final analysis, all of them are but forms of the 
ideal. Man pictures himself as obtaining satisfaction, as ideally 
good, when he is happy or when he is gaining what is to his 
advantage, when he is obeying the moral intuitions of his 
nature, or when he is following the rigid mandate of Practical 
Reason. But in any case, he is attempting to fulfill his ideal, 
he is trying to be like his ideal man. 

Aside from these philosophers, however, there are multi- 
tudes who do not formulate the object of their search. True, 
all men are philosophers, yet some more than others. But we 
cannot, on account of difference in ability in these matters, 
deny to them any ideal. All of us, as men and women, are 
human beings, self-conscious persons ; and whether we are con- 
scious of the ideal in this one form or not, the main-spring of 
our action is some moral ideal. 

So much for the ideal itself. Every man has an ideal of 
conduct which guides and controls his action ; 
he may be conscious of it as such or not. And summary 

the ideal may be. defined, proximately, as the statement 

incarnation in idea of those principles of action 
which are considered morally ideal ; or ultimately, as an " active 
idea of common good." 

We may now pass to other considerations. To justify the 
stating of such a thesis as ours, the ideal should 
develop, but does not what we have said pre- ^deai™!"* ° f 
elude this ? Is not the ideal, once and for all, Possible 
the incarnation of moral principles ? Yes, and 
No. There is a difference between the eternal Incarnation of 
those principles — at once the Cause and Goal of our develop- 
ment — and our realization of that Incarnation, the degree to 
which the totality of moral principles is embodied in our ideal. 
Mankind is not only self-conscious, but progressively so. He 
does not know so much of himself or of his surroundings to-day 
as he will to-morrow, and yesterday he knew far less. The 
progress which occurs, and which we can observe, in any single 



22 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



science is present in every realm of knowledge ; and the idea 
of a progressive development of the ideal is as much a necessity 
of our nature as finite as is the presence of the ideal of our 
nature as self-conscious. 

There are two directions in which this development of the 
ideal may take place. There will be, first, a 
Directions of development of its content. As one grows 

Development older, he finds new spheres for the discharge of 

moral duties. What is commonly called his 
standard of morality changes. It may rise to demand the most 
complete self-sacrifice, or it may fix upon the fulfilment of a 
small circle of duties, accompanied by the fullest attainment of 
animal pleasure. It is certain that it will include an increasing 
number of duties, and that the old duties will take on new 
meanings and will involve readjustments of life. In the morally 
well-balanced man, other things being equal, the direction of 
movement will be away from " goods of the body " toward the 
" goods of the soul." But individual idiosyncrasies make a gen- 
eral statement untrustworthy. The only thing that we can 
certainly maintain is the fact of development ; though relatively 
perhaps only change, it is absolute progress. Moral stagnation 
and death are practically synonymous. 

There will also, very likely, be a development in the range 
of the ideal, though this is not so certain to appear. A few, 
doubtless, will ever make the aristocratic distinction on some 
basis or other. Yet this is to-day changing. The number of 
those who include in society, not simply a social clique or a 
local division, is constantly increasing. People are coming to 
believe that races are social units, and that even the peoples of 
the earth form one society. 

In both of these lines, in the range and in the content of 
the ideal, there may be development ; there must be continually 
in one. And for the majority of people the development takes 
place most markedly in the content of the ideal, since it is 
more closely connected with the duties of everyday life. 

The question how ideals change, and what are the forces 

behind the development, though it does not 

Manner of directly concern our discussion, merits a brief 

Development reply. Incidentally, this calls up the relation 

between ideals and ideas. And we observe that 



THE IDEAL 



23 



it is by the addition of ideas that ideals are changed. For the 
ideal is an active idea of common good. It is not simple, but 
complex, including all the ranges of our action ; and every idea 
of common good which approves itself to us, which we believe 
really worthy of realization by us, we make a part of our ideal. 
This is the process by which we come to see more and more of 
the ideal, by which its definition grows clearer and clearer. 
New ideas come with wider knowledge and truer insight, and 
the ideal develops by the incorporation of some of these ideas. 

But the great controversy is over the influence of heredity 
and surroundings on character and conduct. Now, no one will 
claim that they are without effect, and that effect may be 
great ; but we hold that they are not the only factor. The prob- 
lem may be solved in this manner. We will include under the 
head of surroundings man's physical nature as determined by 
heredity, his material circumstances and surroundings, his 
social relations, and the stage of civilization into which he has 
been born. And then, recognizing the inherent creative and 
self-determining power of the human will, we are compelled to 
say that, while they are mighty formative influences, they con- 
trol action only as the agent allows them to ; that he is com- 
petent to utilize them to the furthering of his own ends, and 
that it is possible for him to be a peculiar man in the midst of 
most untoward surroundings. Giving all the credit one may 
desire to environment as a force in the development and direc- 
tion of moral life, we must still remember that the environment 
is surroundings plus the man, and that the moral element is not 
in conditions but in choices. 

But does not the Spencerian view of the unity of the race, 
or the doctrine of " social tissue " proposed by 
Mr. Leslie Stephen, militate against this theory Racial and 
of the moral ideal ? The idea is individual ; it National ideals 
is in my mind ; I try to follow it. My neigh- 
bor has another ideal, and he tries to follow it. And so we 
have a multitude of individual ends and ideals of common 
good, while the great fact of recent investigation is the unity 
of social and national progress. 

The reply to this objection must be brief, yet it may serve 
to bring out with tolerable clearness the existence and character 
of national ideals. On the negative side, "society" is simply 



24 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



the name we give to a collection of individuals in various re- 
lations. Apart from these individuals, that to which it refers 
has no existence. As the tree is composed of cells, so society 
consists in individuals ; and given the fact of racial unity, 
there is no necessary incompatibility between it and the 
possession of individual ideals. And, on the other hand, there 
are several considerations which indicate a positive harmony ; 
viz., the fact of mankind's common humanity, of the common 
human basis of the ideal, i. e., self-consciousness, of the common 
surroundings of a nation or race which would shape the ends 
of conduct in a common way. And beyond these facts, are 
the conceptions, which go to the very roots of things, of the 
human self-consciousness as the reproduction under limitations 
of the Infinite Self-consciousness, and of the good as eternally 
realized in the Infinite Personality who is at once the Cause 
and the Goal of all our development. The expansion of this 
five-fold argument, and particularly of the last two ideas, would 
carry us far beyond our present limits. We can only say that 
they fully justify us in positing for the ideal an original "unity 
of design" — if we may so speak. And when, later, men be- 
come conscious of their ideals as such and seek to express 
them to their fellows, it is according to the reason which is 
inherent in any ideal, and which, appealing to the common self- 
consciousness, is adopted by it and so becomes an integral part 
of each individual ideal, that that ideal spreads and becomes 
the predominant active idea of a family, a city, or a nation. 
Thus we come to have a national ideal, a common ideal of 
action, shared in its general characteristics by the majority of 
citizens. 

We should not confuse this with an individual ideal of a 
nation. What we ordinarily speak of in this way, is more 
properly an individual idea of a perfect nation. It is not an 
active idea, as is the moral ideal ; its moral bearing is indirect. 
Only in so far as it is taken up into and changes personal 
ideals, and so secures certain individual actions, has it, as any 
other idea of common good, a moral effect. 



Chapter?II 

INSTITUTIONS 

An institution is literally something established. But 
searching behind this etymological statement, 
we find that institutions are set up, not only Definitions 

that they may stand, but that they may serve 
some purpose. What this their real nature is, we desire to 
learn, yet it is our wish just now to consider institutions only in 
themselves, as they appear. Looking at them, then, as they 
exist in the concrete, we find that they may be called organisms, 
for they seem to have, in a manner, a complete life within them- 
selves. As is the case with other organisms, they are also 
centers of force. Each of them is the focus of a multitude of 
social fibers of afferent conduct and efferent influence. So far 
as their formation is concerned, they seem to be the deposits, 
in one realm of society and in another, of advancing civilization. 
Now one form of human activity and now another is affected by 
the progress, and in place of the old organism, there is deposited 
a changed, or an entirely new institution, whose office it is to 
conserve the advance which has been made, and the new order 
to which civilization has brought society. On the basis of these 
facts, we say, then, that institutions are, concretely, organisms, 
centers of force deposited by society, and conserving particular 
forms of social order. 

But this is not the only aspect in which institutions appear. 
As social action is made up of the conduct of individuals, so the 
institutions of society have no existence apart from the activity 
of those individuals. And given those individuals, institutions 
bear to them the relation of general forms under which their 
actions, which make up the action of society, take place. 
Together, the institutions form an orderly arrangement of hu- 
man activity ; they constitute the body, the corpus of social life. 
Hence, we obtain a second definition : Institutions are, in the 
abstract, habits of social living. And combining this and the 
previous one, we have the statement : Concretely, institutions 
are organisms, centers of force deposited by society, and con. 

(2 S ) 



2 6 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

serving particular forms of social order. In the abstract, they 
are habits of social life. 

Since institutions are, in one aspect, the forms under which 
human activity takes place, it follows that, in strictness, the con- 
currence of two persons in their action must found an institu- 
tion ; the action of a single individual, however, cannot, for in- 
stitutions are social, they are habits of society. On the other 
hand, ordinarily the term "institution" is applied to the com- 
mon mode of action of a large number of persons, or of the 
majority of the members of society. 

As we examine institutions, we early inquire into their re- 
lation to other observed phenomena, perhaps 
sanctions and with the ultimate aim of learning their sanction 

institutions and cause. Beginning with the natural world, 

we find that institutions are in general agree- 
ment with the facts of physical nature, that certain types of in- 
stitutions are found in the tropics, others mark the temperate 
zones, and still different forms exist in the more northerly 
regions. Likewise, there are certain peculiarities which gener- 
ally distinguish the institutions of mountainous from those of 
level countries. We note also, that the attempt to transplant 
institutions is often a failure, and that it is only after certain 
conditions are complied with (e. g., of education to the plane of 
a people living in different circumstances) that it can succeed. 
We, therefore, take general equilibrium with physical conditions 
as the first sanction of a social institution. 

The same thing must also be true as regards it connection 
with other institutions. All must be in equilibrium one with 
another, for they are severally members of one common civiliza- 
tion. In its advance, civilization has left one here and another 
there ; the progress has most strongly affected now this institu- 
tion and now that. But all together they form at any given stage 
the one coherent mass or order which we call society, and each 
institution must be in general equilibrium with the others, or 
else it cannot stand. 

Another great sanction seems to be tradition. The customs 
of the fathers are a ground for many notions, and often their 
only ground. Not a few people look back with profound regret 
to the "good old times," and many men seem willing to act 



INSTITUTIONS 



27 



against their better judgment, in order that they may satisfy 
what they conceive to be the demands of a?itiqui mores. 

Yet in the last analysis, from our present point of view, we 
find that the chief sanction of an institution is nothing else 
than its continued existence. This is prima facie evidence that 
it is in accord with the facts of nature, and proof of its 
equilibrium with the rest of the social order. However, such a 
statement is not entirely true. There are exceptions, for an 
institution which is the beginning of a new order may survive, 
although it is, to a certain extent, out of equilibrium with the 
rest of the organization ; and by observation we are aware, that 
if it is firmly embedded, the influence which proceeds from it 
as a nucleus may result in a new society. 

The existence of such exceptions suggests the question of 
the apparent causes of institutions. What is the cause in the 
equilibrium of institutions, these exceptions themselves tell 
us, vis. : the influence of a firmly embedded unadjusted institu- 
tion. And this seems here to be the only cause. Looking for 
others, however, in the equilibrium with physical phenomena, it 
appears that the phenomena themselves are causes, and demand 
certain lines of action. The.necessities of life compel hunting 
and agriculture, and likewise the fact of human gregariousness 
compels the institutions which, in general, we group under the 
family, society, and the state. 

Examining institutions, then, from an external point of view, 
we observe as their sanctions, primarily, their continued exist- 
ence, and secondarily, tradition and their adjustment in the 
physical and institutional equilibrium. And we note as their 
apparent causes the compelling forces of physical nature and 
the formative influences of existing institutions. 

The thought of re-adjustment involves the idea of change 
and development in institutions, a deduction 
which observation verifies. Such movement is change in 

going on somewhere continually. In the institutions 

language of equilibrium, there is a continu- 
ous re-adjustment. The question arises whether it is progress. 
In some instances this seems to be the case, while in others, 
we think we notice regress. The fact is, that attention is 
drawn at one time to what is added, and at another to what is 
given up, and it is by what we observe that we pass judg- 



28 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

ment. In every instance there is, as history bears testi- 
mony, an absolute progress, though relatively it may seem to 
be retrogression. The form of this progress is a series of insti- 
tutions, or, more properly, a series of variations in single insti- 
tutions. Apparently, from time to time new institutions arise, 
but they are seen to be, in fact, only specializations of exist- 
ing main divisions, the complexity which always accompanies 
higher forms of life. In order to verify this, we may run back 
over history in our thought, and the most cursory of examina- 
tions is sufficient to satisfy us that the real body of its events is 
the progress of institutions. 

We now inquire more specifically as to the manner of their 
development. It sounds almost trivial to say that institutions 
change either slowly and imperceptibly, or suddenly. But we 
notice that a sudden development usually awakens in thought- 
ful minds anxiety as to its stability, while, regarding a slow 
evolution, there is no such solicitude. It is also observed that 
sudden changes do not always remain, while, on the other hand, 
a steady growth is in the main permanent. It would seem, 
then, that the real development of institutions, that which is 
stable and sure, is comparatively slow. We have further evi- 
dence of this from another quarter. Agitation is commonly the 
necessary forerunner of revolutionary changes. Yet in some 
cases, this agitation is a matter of years, while in others it is 
one of days. Now the object of agitation is to change or stim- 
ulate public opinion. This being true in all cases, we infer that 
when a long time is required, popular sentiment has to be 
changed practically from the start, while, in the second in- 
stance, it has been changing and only required stimulation. It 
seems, then, a legitimate conclusion from the character of the 
change in public opinion on which a revolution seems to 
depend, as well as from the anxiety which apparently sudden 
upheavals cause in thoughtful minds, that the real progress of 
institutions is gradual ; and a tracing of the facts in any case 
will verify this induction. 

In the next place, the growth of institutions brings in- 
creased number and complexity. This we have just noted as 
being really the specialization of primary institutions. It 
involves a deepening of their content and a more clear defini- 
tion of what actions they endorse. It is also accompanied by 



INSTITUTIONS 2 Q 

a broadening of their range. The number of persons who act 
under certain forms is continually increasing. We notice, 
further, that all institutions do not develop together, or in equal 
ratio. Now one and now another is the center of movement, 
but the movement itself is general. Thus it is that we find a 
given age marked by certain prominent institutions, while in 
another others are most notable. 

A part of the development of institutions seems to be their 
decay, just as in animal bodies that is a feature of life and 
change. Yet, as there, not the whole dies, but a part which is 
sloughed off. The new institution grows up beside the old, 
observed or unobserved. As it gathers strength, it takes the 
place of the old, either gradually or all at once, while at the 
same time the old is removed, either slowly by disintegration 
and absorption or quickly by an absolute destruction. It is 
some such process which is going on all the time, and by which 
the new is rising phoenix-like out of" the old. There are, to be 
sure, forces which tend to the preservation of decadent institu- 
tions. A most potent one is tradition. Another is law. The 
one by the weight of its custom, and the other by its punish- 
ments, may for a long time continue old habits. Decaying, 
however, as they cease to be forms of common life, though they 
may in general cover certain fields of action, they cease in time 
to be accepted. And when society as a whole suffers from 
them, institutions are abolished. Yet they do not altogether 
die, for their influence is seen in the present. Their legacy is 
found in history and in literature. They serve as examples, per- 
sisting in more or less potent tradition. Nevertheless, what 
was their peculiar mark disappears ; only the general, the social 
truth remains. 

Having thus examined institutions, as they appear, we cast 
about for some scheme of classification. Tem- 
porarily, we find that we can divide them ac- classification of 
cording to the stages of progress. We want, institutions 
however, a classification of institutions in them- 
selves. Range does not seem to offer a good criterion, for 
it calls only for differences in degree, and gives no distinct 
dividing lines. Content furnishes a better standard ; and with 
its assistance we may classify institutions according to the 
fields of action which they cover. All social activity may thus 



3° 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



be included in three divisions, according as it relates to the 
Subjugation of Material Nature, as it has to do with Social 
Organization, and as it promotes Individual Culture. We have 
then this classification : ' 

I — Institutions Relating to the Subjugation of Nature. 

i. Material Progress. 
2. Ordinary Vocations. 

II — Institutions Relating to Social Organization. 

i. The Family. 

2. The State. 

3. Religion. 

4. Social Customs. 

III — Institutions Relating to Individual Culture. 

1. Intellectual Education. 

2. Physical Culture. 2 



1 Adapted from Mackenzie : Social Philosophy, 

2 3. Spiritual Culture. These we have left untouched. Definition is difficult. In their more 
truly institutional form, they are closely related to Religion. But on the other hand, in their truest 
form they are confined to acts which are spiritual, private, and personal, of which autobiographies 
may give us hints, but as to which we really can have little knowledge. 



Chapter III 

STATIC RELATION OF IDEALS AND INSTITU- 
TIONS—THEIR CORRESPONDENCE. 

We have now considered ideals and institutions by them- 
selves. We have defined the ideal as " an 
active idea of common good " ; or, proximately, introductory 

as the incarnation in idea of those principles of 
action which are considered morally ideal. An institution we 
have characterized as, concretely, an organism, a center of 
force deposited by society and conserving social order : and as, 
in the abstract, a habit of social living. In our discussion thus 
far, the attempt has been made to keep the ideal and the insti- 
tution separate ; but in the study of the ideal, frequent refer- 
ence was made to society, and in that of institutions we alluded 
at least once to public sentiment. The fact is that the one 
cannot be thoroughly understood without reference to the 
other, and either of them, considered by itself, fails to disclose 
its true significance. 

Institutions have been spoken of as forms of common 
activity, and such they are. But if we search below the surface 
of this statement, we lay bare a larger truth. Human action is 
for ends ; it is prompted by desires whose satisfaction it seeks. 
This satisfaction is, as we have seen, the good, and the active 
idea of the common good is the moral ideal. Further, it is the 
ideal which, accepting the gratification of this or that desire as 
a means to its fulfilment, induces action, and it is the realiza- 
tion of the ideal at which we aim. Now action appears under 
the general forms of institutions ; and so the two have a vital 
connection. Customs are, in a sense, the machinery of life. 
We may admire their delicacy or their stability, their plan and 
their beauty, but they have no vitality in themselves. As an 
ideal is not really such, is only an ordinary idea, unless we 
strive to realize it, so institutions of themselves are nothing. 
They serve humanity only as they are forms under and through 
which there is manifested the ideal. The facts of life are pur- 
poses and actions ; ideals direct the first and institutions are 
the general 'forms for the second. And between the latter, as 

(30 



32 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



well as the former, there is an intimate connection. Yet, on 
the one hand, there are people who can content themselves 
with good intentions, as though the ideal had no real concern 
with life ; and on the other, there are some who will only look 
on the phenomenal, that which appears, and who try to make 
moral conduct and physical action synonymous. Let us for a 
moment consider the ideal and the institution, each from the 
point of view of the other, that we may be the more certain of 
their real correspondence. 

From the point of view of the ideal, institutions are general 

forms for its self-expression. They are its em- 

institutionsfrom bodiment, "the form and body of reason," ob- 

the Point of View . . .. TT . ..... . 

of the ideal jective morality. History, which is the record 

of past institutions, is recognized as also " the 
palaeontology of moral ideals." Our definition of institutions as 
habits of social life is supported by this view. For a habit im- 
plies the consent, open or tacit, of those whose habit it is. So, 
too, our common surroundings are not sufficient to account for 
likeness of habit ; but the oneness of human nature is. And 
that nature we call human, because it is self-conscious ; and its 
moral characteristic as such is a common moral ideal. Again, 
from this point of view, institutions are simply forms of neces- 
sary life. Life is social, and as men are alike, this means that 
there must be established ways of action, i. e., customs, institu- 
tions. They are necessary for the completion of the ideal. 
And it follows that, if the ideals of two groups of individuals 
are the same, their institutions will be the same, so far as cir- 
cumstances allow. 

But the question arises whether, as a matter of fact, all insti- 
tutions have this connection with the ideal. It seems as though 
they did not ; more especially as there are some in which, if 
we may so speak, less morality is required than in others. We 
may say first, however, that physical circumstances are not 
competent fully to account for any institution. They are sim- 
ply the mould, or, to be more exact, the material of the mould, 
in which the manifestation of the ideal is cast. Now it often 
occurs, in the moulding process, that this mould is distorted 
from its original shape and changed in form. And in such an 
instance, we must of necessity refer to the action of the ideal 
that which cannot be accounted for by environment, for these 
are the two factors. But there are some actions which are me- 



STATIC RELATION 



33 



chanical. Habitually performed, they have become automatic. 
These, in their ultimate analysis, are by origin moral. Once 
they occupied our attention as they do not now ; and if we 
doubt their real nature, we may test it by interfering with 
them. Yet it is to be remembered that only a small range of 
our activity ever becomes automatic. Gradually such a change 
takes place in the feeding of the engine and the oiling of the 
machinery, but not in the directing of the power. And the life 
of man is a field in which he must exercise all his faculties in 
the directing of his vital energy, if he would accomplish his 
greatest satisfaction. 

Another question is whether institutions are the ideal's only 
manifestation. It seems to us that they are. Other forms in 
which the ideal appears are literature and philosophy. The 
first tells what has been lived in action and emotion. The 
latter is able to state the ideal quite accurately, because so 
largely untrammeled in its exercise. But both are expressions 
of moral ideas, rather than manifestations of the moral ideal. 
The relations of the ideal are solely with action. 

Changing now our position, and looking at the ideal from 
the point of view of the institution, we note, 
first, that human actions, as carried on under The Ideal from the 

. Point of View of 

the forms ot institutions, are tor ends ; and as the institution 
for ends, they are animated by purposes. We 
find that people do not act aimlessly under institutions. When 
we ask why they do a certain thing, they always have some 
reason ready. And without reference to the nature of the 
reply, the fact of a reason at all proves our assertion that the 
action is not unintentional. But further, the reason given is 
either the satisfaction of desire — " Because I want something " 
or " Because I think it will be to my advantage," or what is 
ultimately the same thing, obedience to a certain principle — 
"Because I ought to " or " Because other people do." Both 
these we recognize as expressions of what we have called the 
ideal. And so, by common account, ideals are at the basis of 
institutions. 

Next we observe that men act en masse under certain insti- 
tutions. This seems to involve a common idea of good. And 
not only do many individuals unite in action under these forms, 
but they act, under some of them at any rate, directly for the 



34 



'IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



general welfare. These forms, then, involve some idea of com- 
mon good which is shared by a number of individuals. We 
note also that variations in institutions are ordinarily referred 
to changes in public sentiment, the general opinion of what 
ought to be. Thus progress in institutions, as well as the exist- 
ence of the institutions themselves, is commonly laid at the door 
of the moral ideal. From the standpoint of institutions, there- 
fore, the ideal is a generally shared idea of common good, for 
which institutions are the ordinary modes of manifestation, and 
which, by its activity, produces change in them. 

The division between institutions and the ideal thus grows 
more and more unreal. We may separate the 
institutions and musician and the organ, but then the organ is 
tute one whole only wood and metal, and of the organist no one 
is aware. Together they constitute the whole. 
So with the ideal and institutions, except that the relation is 
more vital. Sever them from the ideal, and the institutions 
may possibly remain for a little, but they are only inert forms ; 
neither is the ideal manifested. The two go hand in hand, 
they have an inherent connection, they answer the one to the 
other. The ideal involves the institution, and the institution 
involves the ideal. 

But some facts are lying in wait for us. Individual action, 
it is observed, does not always accord with 
objections established institutions, and it is common testi- 

considered mony that customary action does not always 

agree with the demands of the ideal. For in- 
stance, the reformer does what he thinks he ought, what the 
ideal commands him to do, when it is contrary to the institu- 
tions of society ; and, in similar manner, the criminal does what 
he desires, in the face of social disapproval. 

To explain these cases, we must remember that institutions 
are primarily and only social. They posit for their existence a 
number of people. On the contrary, the ideal, while having 
regard to persons as in social relations, is first individual. So 
it may command actions which have no allotted place in exist- 
ing institutions, or are even opposed to them. To be sure, 
when two persons agree in matters of conduct, it is, as we have 
said, theoretically the foundation of a new custom. But ordi- 
narily, both institutions and ideals (as social and national) refer 



ST A TIC RE LA TION 



35 



to bodies of citizens. This, then, being the situation, it is a 
fact that institutions and ideals do not and cannot exactly 
correspond. And we would not desire to prove it otherwise, if 
we could. For entire correspondence would mean that the ideal 
was fully realized, or to put it in more startling form, that the 
existing condition of things was ideal. What we do maintain 
is that the institutions of society correspond with the general 
moral ideal ; that, for the majority of the citizens, institutions 
and ideals in a broad way answer to each other. 

But once again, the question may be asked, Do not institu- 
tions exist without ideals ? Two cases may be cited in support 
of this. A king may impose an institution upon his subjects. 
An institution may be continued by tradition, when no ideal 
answers to it. As to the second instance, we doubt the exist- 
ence of any such state of things. More likely the questioner 
misinterprets the facts ; knowing that the custom is traditional, 
he assumes that it is supported by no ideal. It may, however, 
be true that the ideal has passed a good ways beyond estab- 
lished customs, some cause or other having hindered their de- 
velopment. The society, then, is preparing for new institu- 
tions, and the old will ultimately be assimilated, or destroyed. 
Yet the present order has some likeness to the common ideal, 
or it could not still exist. The absurdity of a custom which 
absolutely no one favored, on any account, is apparent on the 
surface. The first case, however, is from real life — sovereigns 
do impose upon their peoples customs which are burdens 
grievous to be borne. Yet, in every case, according as the 
custom either remains or falls into disuse, slowly or at once, it 
is either accepted or rejected by the people. They may accept 
the institution in itself ; or they may allow it to continue, in 
accord with their ideal of obedience to the king. But in both 
cases they accept it. And if it is removed, it is because the 
people quietly refuse to act under it, because the ruler sees that 
they are becoming uneasy under it, or by means of a revolu- 
tion — in each instance because it is not in agreement with the 
ideal of the nation. 

We hold, then, by our former conclusion, and say that, in 
general, it is true that the institutions of a given society and 
the moral ideal of the majority of its people are in correspond- 
ence, the former with the latter. 



Chapter IV 

THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF IDEALS 
AND INSTITUTIONS 

Ideals exist and develop. Institutions also exist, and they 
too, as we say, develop. At any given stage of 
Proofs and the development, as we have just seen, the 

objections ideal and the institution in a general way corre- 

spond. It is, then, but the shortest step, the 
most direct deduction, by which we arrive at the parallel prog- 
ress of ideals and institutions in historical development. But 
our consideration, thus far, has only established their corre- 
spondence in organic periods of civilization, in the nodes, so to 
speak, of social development, and not in the internodes. The 
question therefore arises whether, in all the steps of the evolu- 
tion, the ideal and the institution are parallel. 

We have admitted that they never correspond exactly, 
since, if they did, such a condition would involve stagnation. 
More than this, institutions can never be an adequate mani- 
festation of the existing ideal. The fact of surrounding cir- 
cumstances necessitates certain restrictions, even though the 
situation may be somewhat changed and adapted. And the 
most accurate expression which we can give the ideal, we con- 
fess, is that in which philosophy presents it. Yet this does not 
do away with any parallelism or connection between institution 
and ideal. Inasmuch as we have arrived at their correspond- 
ence, we know that they are capable of inter-relation in 
thought, and that, therefore, they must have a logical relation 
in reality. The "logic of events" and the growth of the ideal 
are one. 

A fruitful source of error in this matter, and one which we 
must bear in mind, is that what we would naturally view as the 
most important characteristic of the ideal may not really pre- 
dominate. For instance, in an extreme case, a civilization is 
completely destroyed by an invading army ; the conqueror im- 
poses new institutions and new customs. And what then be- 
comes of our parallelism ? We reply that the fact of conquest 

(36) 



PA R ALL EL DE VEL OP MEN T 



37 



has produced as great a change in ideals as in institutions, or 
one of the same kind. The dominant characteristic of the 
ideal is now obedience ; the one habit of life, in which, for the 
time being, all particular institutions are included, is servitude. 
The ideal demands submission to the will of the conqueror as 
the only good action, for simple existence becomes the end, and 
only thus can it be attained. 

And this submission must continue either without end, or till 
such time as resistance can successfully be made. And it is so 
in every case. Men act under institutions for ends. When 
they cease to act for their desired ends under given institu- 
tions, those institutions crumble. But activity continues ; and 
the institutions which are really such are always those forms 
under which activity, as a matter of fact, takes place. 

There is another matter here which demands attention. It 
presents itself in the form of a question, Is de- 
velopment always progress ? And it is em- Development is 
phasized by the query, How can it be, when we Always Progress 
see civilizations completely destroyed, and whole 
nations sink lower and lower in degradation ? To begin with 
the individual, we recognize that there is some change, however 
slight, in the ideal each day. One's actions, too, vary some- 
what from day to day. From these facts it follows that a per- 
son will be to-morrow better or worse, and that permanently, 
than he is to-day. In society, institutions, as in a sense crys- 
tallizations, do not steadily change ; but we know that popular 
sentiment, on which they depend, is all the time changing little 
by little. Though these changes seem slight and comparatively 
unimportant, we must not overlook them, for they are making 
up from day to day the sum-total of development. 

But progress ordinarily suggests to our minds an upward 
movement, an advance, along certain preconceived lines. We 
mistake in so limiting progress, and in designating all else as 
retrogression. Mere retrogression is only a theoretical possi- 
bility. And even then, it is really an impossibility, for were 
there no other difference, there would be, first, that of time, and 
second, that numerical difference which must necessarily exist 
between two things in all other respects exactly the same. 
Any development is progress ; it involves new content, and 
therefore must be progress. The question from the ethical 



38 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



point of view is not, Is this progress ? but, In what direction is 
this progress ? " Whereunto shall these things grow ? " 

And so our last question now is as to the general direction 
of progress. As we think back, the most 
Direction of natural designation of historical development is 

Progress under the three adjectives, material, intellectual, 

and moral. But these make an outward rather 
than a real division. They are phases of action, not funda- 
mental lines of the growth of conduct. In both institutions 
and ideals we have previously noted a common manner of de- 
velopment, viz., broadening of range and deepening of con- 
tent ; and these are the two lines of what we call, collectively, 
historical development. We may, perhaps, make them more 
tangible under the titles of increased intelligence, answering to 
content, and broader sympathy, which is the correlate of wider 
range. Content and range indicate the directions, and deepen- 
ing and broadening the manner of progress. In another way 
of putting it, the center of all development is personality. As 
broadening in range, it includes more and more individuals as 
complete persons ; as deepening in content, it reveals new 
depths and resources of self-conscious individuality. 

Having thus developed the theory of the historical parallel- 
ism of ideals and institutions, it is our purpose to trace that 
development in history. But we defer this for a little, in order 
that we may first make our exposition analytically complete. 
The following chapter, then, presents the logical outcome of 
what has preceded, rather than the central point of the thesis' 
contention. 



Chapter V 

DYNAMIC RELATION OF IDEALS AND INSTITU- 
TIONS—PRIORITY AND CAUSALITY OF 
IDEALS 

In previous chapters, it may have seemed as though our 
exposition involved an intentionally hidden ele- 
ment, and that it was rather under the restraint introductory 
of a predetermined logical analysis. But now 
that we have come substantially to its end, there is no longer 
any call for reservation. A complete statement would be : Not 
only has there been, historically, a parallel development of ideals 
and institutions, but in that parallel development, the ideal has 
been prior to, and causally connected with, its corresponding 
institutions. 

Already in treating of the Correspondence of Ideals and In- 
stitutions, we have allowed that, in many individuals, the ideal is 
in advance of existing institutions. This would seem to lend 
color to the first part of the statement, to make its truth not 
only possible, but probable. We may briefly support the two 
assertions. 

I. The ideal precedes its corresponding institutions. There 
are two things which can precede new institu- 
tions, environment and men, and both of these Priority 
must precede them. For if environment be 
left out, men have nothing on or by which to act ; and if men 
be omitted only environment remains without agents. Both 
are necessary conditions of the existence of institutions. If, 
now, we analyze these two factors, in the first, we find environ- 
ment consisting of physical nature and a preceding state of 
society, i. e. y precedent institutions; in the second factor, men 
have, roughly speaking, three characteristics : physically, they 
live, -intellectually, they think, morally, they act for the satis- 
faction of desires, that is, the manifestation of ideals, as we 
have already seen. None of these five factors can be omitted, 
and, by hypothesis, they are all precedent to the new institu- 
tions, as included under the exhaustive division into men and 

(39) 



40 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



facts. Therefore ideals precede their corresponding institu- 
tions. 1 

Aside, however, from this analytic proof, we have the evi- 
dence of the nature of ideals and institutions, and the direct 
reasoning from them. For the distinguishing characteristic of 
the ideal is that it guides conduct. It is an active idea. This 
it is which gives it its preeminence over the other ideas of com- 
mon good. As such an active idea, the ideal must therefore 
precede, not only the conduct itself, but the institutions as well, 
for they are the forms under which conduct occurs, the habits 
of social living, according to which human activity takes place. 

II. The ideal is causally connected with its corresponding 
institutions. Priority of the ideal being estab- 
causaiity lished, its causal connection with institutions is a 

possibility. In our analysis of the factors which 
precede institutions, we found all five necessarily coming before 
the institution in point of time. Now temporal relation is only 
a contingent, not a necessary form of an existing connection. 
The necessary relation is logical. So all the factors will be in 
some measure causally connected with institutions, and at the 
same time we cannot speak of any one as the cause. 

But they may be causes in varying degrees. First, distin- 
guishing active from inactive, we mark man as the agent, while 
environment and precedent institutions act as conditioning- 
causes. Now, in man the three factors make up one whole; 
yet they are not on an equality. The intellectual is higher than 
the physical, and the ultimate end of all life, both physical and 
intellectual, is character, that is, that which is moral. Physical 
life is essential to human activity. Ideas are our reasonable 
apprehensions of things. But in matters of conduct, it is ac- 
cepted ideas of ends which the ideal takes up into itself, and 
whose realization it commands. This is the rationale of human 



1 For the benefit of the technical reader, it may be said that reference is here made to institu- 
tions as social phenomena. It may be held that, in their primary and fundamental definition, ideals 
and institutions are practically synonymous ; as an ideal is not an ideal except as its fulfilment is the 
end of the agent's action, and institutions are the habitual modes of the action — which at bottom 
is the volition — of a number of similar agents. But the definition of an institution, as in this psy- 
chological sense a habit, is, in strictness, one which could not be made at the outset, but rather after 
such consideration as leads to the understanding of its relation to the ideal. We have, in general, 
referred to institutions as they appear, apart from this special signification. Of the institution, as 
in this psychological sense a habit, the temporal priority of the ideal would not be true, for the 
ideal and the institution would have simultaneous existence. The causality of the ideal, however, 
would remain the same, for the logical relation between ideals and institutions is necessary and 
universal. 



D YNAMIC RE LA TION 



41 



action in the individual. And it is very apparent that it is the 
ideal which is the vital cause of conduct. Now, what is true of 
one man as man, is true of all. Simply the common habits of 
life are what we call institutions. And these habits are com- 
mon, conditions being similar, as a common ideal commands the 
activity which they formulate. Ideals are, then, the causes of 
institutions ; and in the ultimate analysis, the relation is one of 
final causality. 

There are those who do not accept this view of the Causality 
of Ideals. To this number belong, for instance, many socialists 
and communists, if we may judge from their programs. They 
expect to elevate men by improving their surroundings and the 
conditions of their lives. The same is true of many philanthro- 
pists. On the other hand, the secret of such enterprises as 
Hull House, Chicago, and Andover House, Boston, of the social 
work of General Booth " In Darkest England," and of all sorts 
of missionary endeavor, is the changing of men's moral and 
social conditions by the prior elevation of their ideals. Not 
upon doing for men, but upon the possibility of persuading them 
to do for themselves, rests the assurance of ultimate success in 
the endeavor to elevate mankind. 



Part II 



HISTORICAL 



Chapter I 

THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK 
IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

We commence our historical investigation with the Greeks, 
as the earliest people, well known to us, who 
have left a definite and permanent impression Preliminary 

upon history. We begin with the first organic 
stage of society of which we have a description, that pictured in 
the Greek epic. And we shall expect to find in the four stages 
of Greek society — the Homeric, the Transitional, the Attic, 
and the Hellenic — first of all a development of the moral 
ideal. 1 

I — DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAL 

The ideal man of the first period is presented in the Iliad 
and Odyssey. Naturally, we do not find all his 
characteristics given in tabulated form, nor do Homeric ideal 

we find any of the heroes embodying them all. 
We are able, however, to gather from these poems that the 
ideal of the Homeric times was the victorious warrior, 

" Of ready wit and dauntless courage, proved 
In every danger; and to Pallas dear." 

He was strong physically, like Menelaus of "broad chest 
and brawny arm," and like Agamemnon, "king of men," heroic 
both in bearing, which comes from his noble lineage, and in 
action, which springs from a warlike heart. He made great 
boast of his abilities and of his reputation, but all qualities he 
valued chiefly according to the results which they brought, and 
when he stripped the spoil of battle from his fallen enemy, he 
considered that he gained one of the great good things of life. 



1 It may be well to make note of the fact that Professor Mahaffy, in his " Social Life in Greece," 
maintains "the sameness of Greek character and social ideas through all periods of Greek litera- 
ture;" and he states as the common maxim of all Greek life, "Work for youth, counsel for 
maturity, and prayers for old age." (Fragment from Hesiod; Maxim given by Chiron to Achilles; 
preserved by Harpocration from an oration by Hyperides. Davies, J.: Hesiod and Theognis.) 
While other writers make few statements either way, there seems to be the tacit acceptance of a 
progress in morality, as well as in knowledge and art. And if Professor Mahaffy is correct in his 
genera! statement, he must at least allow a very wide and somewhat differing interpretation of these 
rules, in the various stages we are about to study. 

(45) 



46 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

He did not, however, despise labor. In times of peace, he 
busied himself in the supervision of his estate, and found 
recreation in the pleasures of his home, in feasting and con- 
versation with guest-friends, and in music and manly sports. 
His chief dignity was that which he had as the member of a family 
or tribe. To its maintenance and defence he would bend all his 
energies in time of need, and equally, in time of peace, he had 
its welfare very much at heart. As a member of the family he 
was closely connected with the household divinities, and if he 
was its head, he was also its high priest ; in any case, he would 
reverence the gods and obey them. Thus, he was, first, a 
warrior, yet not a despiser of toil. He was fond of social 
pleasures, yet not a glutton. He was deeply imbued with 
piety, at once filial and religious. He may have been rude, but 
he was not coarse. 

We notice, possibly first of all, that this ideal is almost en- 
tirely external. The ideal man is the perfection 
ideal External of the physical nature. And to so great an ex- 
tent is this true, that one might perhaps be led 
to deny what we call morality to those who manifested this 
ideal. Their nearest approach to it is in obedience to the gods, 
and this is largely a means to the maintenance of their personal 
honor and that of the tribe. It is determined, not by a sense of 
obligation, but by personal attachment to the gods, and by 
fear of their hatred and ill-will. The highest services and the 
greatest enjoyments occupy the physical man. Life has to do 
almost entirely with external phenomena, and is " according to 
nature." So far as man speculates, it is concerning the rela- 
tions of things around him ; and his thinking is without system. 
His life is all in terms of his environment. In keeping with' 
this ideal is the primary meaning of the word aperrj, which we 
translate "excellence." Derived from the name Ares (Lat. 
Mars), its first application is to the fight. This is its Homeric 
significance, physical excellence shown by bravery in the fight ; 
and the ideal man, a Greek by birth, is himself a hero, and is 
devoted to the gods and to his family. 

Since the ideal is physical the great power is brute force. 
He who cannot protect himself, finds, as a rule, no protection 
from his fellows. The weak is the unsuccessful type ; the ideal 
demands strength ; force is the masculine quality. The great 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



47 



demand is for personal prowess and the gaining of the victory. 
Goodness or conscientiousness, so far as it was exhibited, was 
thought, on the whole, to be weakness. To be sure, truthful- 
ness was recognized as praiseworthy, but there was constant re- 
course to the deception which was never known to fail. Simi- 
larly, the average of Greek courage was, some think, not very 
high, but the spur which was competent to rouse it all was its 
utility to the gaining of the victory. 1 

There are facts which lead us to believe that this ideal is 
the ideal of what we may call the court. Some- 
what opposed to it is that presented in the Hesiodic ideal 
Hesiodic poems. Here the ideal man lives a 
life of simplicity. He occupies himself with the care of his farm 
and his flocks and herds. With him, the divinities are the 
patrons of morality ; they are the Fates, who set the bounds 
of mortal life, and the god Hermes, upon whose images, in the 
later clays, moral precepts were engraved. In general, the ideal 
life is frugal and moral. Some are of the opinion that the 
works of Hesiod are a polemic against the society represented 
in the Homeric epic. But — and we might expect it from them 
as being two extremes — in essential characteristics the two are 
similar. The main difference is in the points on which the poet 
throws emphasis, and in the occupations to which the different 
men are largely confined. Both are external, and have to do 
with the physical man, and in a certain way the ideal is, as we 
say to-day, " practical." 

We find the two pictures united in the life of the city-state. 
The place of the former unconsciousness was 
here being taken, gradually and with increasing Ideal of Transi - 

° ' ° J & tional Period— In 

rapidity, by intelligent action ; or, more cor- Life of city-state 
rectly, where there had been almost nothing, 
there was now beginning to be the consciousness of personality 
and of human freedom. In the early period, the bravery of the 
heroes in battle, and the cowardice which they sometimes dis- 
played, had been laid to the presence or absence in them of 

1 It ought, perhaps, to be said, that we do not mean that the men of the Homerid deliberately 
set this picture of life before themselves, and tried to realize it in what they did. Certainly they 
did not in the way in which we should do the same thing. It would be a great mistake to clothe 
them with our powers of introspection. They more likely acted as a child does to-day, largely as 
they had been taught, and from the incentive of current events, for external and apparent ends. 
It is embedded in their action, that we find the ideal which we have been describing, unconscious 
but active. 



48 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

some god, and the strength which he would impart. Now men 
began to speak of these as personal qualifications, and to take 
the credit for noble action to themselves. The same externality 
still marked the ideal. Although, more and more, man was 
thought of as intellectual as well as physical, for some time the 
good was to be attained as against others, rather than in one's 
self ; and this was so, whether we make our point of view the 
individual or the state. Instead, however, of the victory in war 
which the early ideal had demanded, it was victory in any con- 
test that was now required. And though the ideal man was 
still a warrior on occasion, his primary object in battle was not 
personal glory, but the defence of the state. Indeed, to so large 
a degree was his life "political," that in the success of the state 
he himself succeeded, and in its failure he felt that he too would 
utterly fall. Along with this patriotic devotion, there was some- 
times present a mercenary, self-seeking spirit. But, in general, 
this was the ideal of the middle Greeks : a warrior-citizen, em- 
phatically a Greek, and a citizen of some city ; a member, like- 
wise, of a family, preferably noble. 1 As a warrior-citizen, his 
chief relations were religious and political, those of religion re- 
maining from the preceding period, and political feelings, now 
the strongest bonds of his life, being the new growth. Citizen- 
ship brought to him certain rights and protections, but there 
were also incident upon him certain obligations which he must 
fulfil ; and all his acts, as those of every citizen, were looked 
on as first affecting the internal welfare of the State. 

It is at about this time that we find the oracles most rever- 
enced and trusted by the Greeks. And since 
in oracular they were under the control of a prudent priest- 

Responses hood, they should furnish us a fair index of the 

best of current opinions and*beliefs. The greater 
part of their deliverances have disappeared, especially those 
relating to moral principles and to questions of conduct, but 
from the scattered utterances which remain we get a few hints 
as to the prevailing moral ideal. The oracle of Apollo at 
Delphi refused to answer one who came to it, having left his 
comrade in danger of death ; no one could consult it against the 
interests of the Hellenes ; it foretold woes for the perjurer, and 



1 This, of course, as a matter which could not be governed, in strictness was not included, but 
rather the honor and nobility that followed from it. 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 4g 

censured men and cities for their vanity ; and to the question, 
Who is the happiest man ? it gave answer, "Phaidios, who died 
for his country." 

But soon — early in the age of Pericles — there was a notice- 
able change in the character of thought. Really 
the result or out-cropping of long development, Attic ideal 

it seems as though the Greeks had suddenly 
become conscious of themselves. There was a strong infu- 
sion of learning and of knowledge of current events into the 
nature of the ideal. And whereas the ideal had tied one 
up to the interests of the state, to the exclusion of much of 
personal welfare, it now called more and more for the man of 
individual culture. This is really a radical change in the char- 
acter of the ideal. In the early times, it had held aloft the 
unthinking, unintrospective, physical man, busied with external 
things ; in the middle period there had been a gradual working 
over and modification, the general characteristics remaining 
much the same. But in this later time, there was a marked 
coming to consciousness of the possibilities of man's nature. 
The chief bond of union became law, and was no longer per- 
sonal attachment as among the heroes. The ideal man was as 
well an individual, as a member of the city-state. The manifes- 
tation of excellence was both in the stability and glory of the 
state, and in the perfection of the personalities of its citizens. 
From this type the external was not excluded ; indeed, it was 
cultivated. But perfection also included the internal, and this, 
in increasing measure, was recognized as the real self. 

This ideal, however, bore in its flower the seeds of its de- 
generation. While the hold of the state upon 
its citizens was yet strong, the uppermost ques- Hellenic ideal 

tions soon ceased to be, Is it to the advantage 
of the state ? Instead, there was no blame attaching to any 
conduct, provided it did not openly menace the welfare of the 
state. With the greater number, the idea of personality 
referred to capacities for personal gratification, and involved 
license. The side of individuality which they discovered was 
that which dictates freedom from physical labor. And so there 
arose the typical expression of the changed ideal, the Athenian 
gentleman — he whose political apathy Demosthenes in vain 
attempted to dispel. The object of life was not the conquest of 



50 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

the enemies of the state ; and so far as the desire for victory was 
active, it found its satisfaction in "eristic prize-fighting." The 
main object of existence was the elegant employment of leisure. 
The theories of the great trio of philosophers, though on a 
higher plane, are in many respects typical of life in the Age 
of Pericles. They inculcate, to a large degree, an ideal of all- 
round manhood. But the development of the latent tendencies 
which produced the Hellenic ideal is apparent in the Stoic and 
Epicurean off-shoots, and in the decided preponderance of the 
latter in the matter of popular following. While evidently 
lacking in strength, the ideal of this last period demanded a 
civilized refinement and an intellectual culture that were beyond 
all which had preceded. 

II — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF L\ T STTTUTI.ONS RELATING TO 
THE SUBJUGATION OF NATURE 

Parallel with this progress of the ideal, there was a progress 
of institutions. We find, for instance, the difference very 
plainly marked between the Homeric times and those of Peri- 
cles, and in the middle period, in a number of instances, we are 
able to note the advance. 

We naturally find a considerable difference in the common 
occupations. In early Greece, since the ideal man was the 
great warrior and the owner of broad acres, the only worthy 
pursuits were arms and agriculture. In the middle period, when 
the population massed itself in cities and life put on the city 
aspect, men were occupied with the affairs of the state, and its 
commands and welfare received their whole attention. Yet 
some found time to make money, and even to so great an extent 
was this true that Theognis laments, " The mass of men know 
but one virtue — to be rich." Though this was the view of one 
who was considerable of a pessimist in his own day, the words 
were nevertheless prophetic. In later Athens, the sense of 
personality, newly acquired, prompted to the seeking of individ- 
ual gain and personal pleasure, first, as citizens of the state, 
and then, at the expense of the state's well-being. Many of 
the poorer citizens received their support at the public expense 
as dicasts, and the largesses which were made by Pericles were 
but a concession to the growth of the same influence. Plato 
says that Pericles made the people " lazy, frivolous, and sensual" ; 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



5* 



but this was his polemic in the r61e of a reformer. What he 
attacked was really the development of hitherto latent germs. 
The gentleman of Athens of the later days was bent on the 
elegant use of his leisure, and it was in pursuit of this that he 
whiled away his hours in the agora or at the bath, mingling 
in the common talk or hanging on the lips of some popular 
teacher, always eager to hear or tell some new thing. 

It is, then, not very amazing that for him, more than for his 
ancestors, all the trades and handicrafts were on a low level. 
Most honor was accorded the architect, for he ministered to the 
religious and citizen spirit, as well as to the aesthetic sense of 
beauty. But sculptors and painters were looked on as only 
makers of statues and makers of pictures, as others made arms 
and implements. And yet it is during this period that we see 
in and about Athens those magnificent temples and that multi- 
plicity of statues spring into being. From the Homeric times 
there had been a marked increase in comfort, and the rude 
splendor of the early days had given way to a stately beauty 
which is still the wonder of the world. Yet beyond this there 
developed only general luxuriousness, and a search for that 
which is merely beautiful. 

CAUSALITY. MATERIAL WELFARE 

1 Rude splendor, .... Corresponds to demands of external, 

physical ideal. 

2 Growing comfort, .... Due to demands of increasingly intel- 

lectual ideal, also calling for vic- 
tory. 

3 Greater magnificence, . . . Due to ideal of individual culture in the 

state. 

4 Luxuriousness, .... Due to ideal of personal gratification. 

COMMON OCCUPATIONS 

1 Warrior and farmer, arms and agri- Corresponds to physical (and family) 

culture, ..... ideal. 

2 City affairs, ..... Due to political ideal. 

3 (Also 2) Getting rich, . . . Due to utilitarian tinge of ideal, good 

as victory; and to ideal of individ- 
ual culture. 

4 Individual gain, pleasure, support at Due to ideal of personal gratification. 

public expense, 
Use of leisure, .... Due to ideal of Athenian gentleman. 
Artisans looked down upon, . . Due to the same. 



52 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



III — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING 
TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 

But these might be considered rather as phenomena of the 
change in Greek national life, than as an integral part of it. We 
find the development par excellence in the institutions of society 
which we more commonly call by that name — the family, the 
state, religion, and social customs. 

In the early days, the family was a religious institution, its 
members being bound together in the worship 
The Family of departed ancestors. The life was in general 

one of purity. Each man, the chiefs being 
excepted, was the husband of one wife. Society was as yet 
unarttficial, and woman was nearly on an equality with man, his 
help-meet. She ate with him at table, she was a sharer of his 
life when he was not at war. To her was given over the 
care and direction of the home. But with the change to city 
life, there was a change in the position of woman. She was 
secluded, according to the Asiatic custom. While greater 
laxity was allowed to the husband, on the contrary, the strictest 
fidelity was exacted from the wife, and if, with or without rea- 
son, he put her away, it was she that must bear the reproach 
and not he. At the first, the marriage tie had been rather one 
of custom, its chief safeguard being the family's position as 
the main organization of society. But now, as we shall more 
plainly see in the consideration of the state, the primary bond 
changed to one of citizenship. The tie of patriotism and 
friendship became stronger than that of the family, and to 
meet the opportunity thus afforded, there was a growing ten- 
dency away from purity of life. Toward the close of the period, 
woman was little more than a domestic slave ; and in the next, 
we find Aristotle saying that the intellectual capacity of women 
is different from that of men (thus explaining the current idea 
that women should not be expected to know anything). For 
the men of his day, Demosthenes declared, " We have hetairae 
to please us, and wives to bear us children and to care for our 
households." Evidently the wife had lost her old position as 
the companion of her husband. Marriage, which was at first 
acknowledged by a public ceremony, had been gradually stripped 
of its formalities, and reduced to that which was but its original 
essence. Never a civil or religious act, though religious forms 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



53 



had accompanied its recognition, it was primarily simply the 
living together as man and wife. And it now became only a 
domestic relationship, and the tie could be made or broken 
without great ado. 

There are some who declare that the Spartan matron was the 
Greek ideal woman of these, and, in fact, of all 
times, or that Andromache, for instance, and An- Was the Spartan 
tigone are the types of the womanly ideal ; but to the ideal woman ? 
us the facts seem otherwise. These characters 
may have been and doubtless were admired, but they were not the 
ideal of action. In the later days, the wife had greater credit 
than formerly in this, that whereas heredity had been regarded 
as existing only through the father, Aristotle declared that 
children were equally the offspring of father and mother. But 
in only one thing did the old position of the wife remain, she had 
the care of the children. 

CAUSALITY. THE FAMILY 

1 Homeric family, .... Corresponds to place of family in ideal 

and to lack of coarseness. Charac- 
teristics of ideal as external, physi- 
cal and utilitarian show possibilities 
of evil development, when men 
became self-conscious, unless some- 
thing be added. 

2 Loss of regard for family, . . Due to growth of political ideal. 

Tendency to make family only a means 
to increase the state ; so to de- 
grade it. 

3 Increase of the same, . . . Due to same and to selfish ideal of in- 

dividual culture. 

4 Greater degradation, . . . Due to ideal of self-gratification. 
Glossing over, .... Due to ideal of elegance and luxury. 
Some betterment in family life, . Due to presence of some control in the 

ideal. 

In political institutions we find a very marked development. 
The early state was a patriarchal kingdom. Its 
basis was religious. The chieftain was such by Ea ^ ^~ 0& 

virtue of his position as high-priest of the tribe. 
The mass of the people constituted a general assembly which 
met to hear the results of the sittings of the king's council of 
nobles. But while they were allowed to express dissent from 
the plans which had been adopted, they could not change them. 
The king, however, was not a sovereign with power over the 
people, although his kingship was hereditary by primogeniture; 
he was only the leader in battle and the chief executive. The 
unit of the kingdom was the deme, a community having a 



54 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



leader of its own, and represented by him, as a member of the 
king's council, in the deliberations of the nation. Among the 
members of the deme there was acknowledged mutual respon- 
sibility. If a member did wrong to any one outside, all were 
guilty, and if one was harmed, all were to take revenge. Thus 
in the deme, each individual was a unit, but in the kingdom the 
unit was a single community. The chief was the king, not of 
the people, but of the demes. 

The middle period commences with the death of King Co- 

drus in battle, and the change from kings to 
Transitional elected archons. Afterward there was a further 

change to archons for ten years, and finally to 
nine archons for one year. The general government was in 
reality at one time a tyranny and at another an oligarchy ; all 
through it was aristocratic. The family gradually lost its politi- 
cal significance. The city, which was formerly cantonal, became 
municipal, and its internal government was developed. In the 
time of Solon, the pressure of the resident aliens and the peas- 
ants (becoming conscious of themselves as men) upon the old 
Eupatrids compelled the new constitution, and the establish- 
ment under Cleisthenes of a pure democracy. This reached its 
highest development in the Age of Pericles, when each man 
consciously used his citizenship for the welfare of the state, and 
everyone was jealous of Athenian honor. Parallel to this in- 
crease of the popular power was the gradual curtailment of that 
of the Areopagus. Deprived, one by one, of its privileges, the 
tablets containing the laws were in Cleisthenes' time brought 
down from Mars' Hill to the market place, and the weighty body 
of ancient and honorable nobility was allowed to nurse its dig- 
nity in stately elegance. The last step in the transformation 
was taken under the leadership of Aristides the Just. The 
essential qualification of wealth for office-holding was removed, 
and whereas, at first, nobility of birth had been necessary, now 
all classes of citizens, irrespective of wealth or lineage, were 
alike eligible. 

In this state, the Athenians had full liberty ; and in that 

liberty were comprised personal safety, freedom 
Attic of speech, the right of intermarriage with all 

families, and the right of holding property. That 
..•as slow in coming about goes almost without the 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



55 



saying — and, indeed, we have tacitly implied it. Both the 
Eupatrids and the men of the mountain and of the shore hated 
each the tyranny of the other. Among the Eupatrids, each 
youth took the memorable oath which Aristotle has preserved, 
" I will be at enmity with the demos, and will do it all the harm 
I can." But the growth of the new ideal brought about, in the 
end, the new constitution and the new adjustment of society. In 
a sense, however, the democracy was a tyranny. The Greeks 
were by nature aristocrats ; the range of the ideal included only 
Greeks. Hence, in the outlying provinces, the inhabitants had 
no voice in the management of their affairs, and in the city it 
was true before many years that aliens paid the taxes and slaves 
did the work, together supporting the state, while it was con- 
ducted by its citizens. The democracy was a tyranny, too, in 
that, in the hands of the populace, the government became a 
machine turned against the noble and wealthy. 

To maintain the democracy in the height of its power was 
a thing most difficult ; in fact, it was beyond 
the ability (or stability) of the Greeks. In the Hellenic 

ideal of personal freedom, only a few were aware 
of the accompanying necessity of self-control, and so, for the 
crowd, freedom, which soon meant license, made democracy 
mean anarchy. Interest in personal attainment and in pleasure 
"took precedence of the call of the state. No longer did the 
citizens care to go to war. The theater and the baths, the con- 
versation of the market and the pettifogging of the assembly 
were more to their taste. Government became a sort of instru- 
ment, manipulated for private ends, and the public revenue was 
spent in catering to the whims of the people. The existing cor- 
ruption appears, for instance, in the open trade of writing 
speeches, whereas cases had formerly been decided simply on 
the evidence, and men had appeared for themselves, and in the 
scramble for offices to which there attached no salary — but 
countless bribes. Rulers prided themselves, not on the purity 
of their administrations, but on the degree in which the public 
praised their benefactions. It is this which causes Mahaffy to 
say that the democracy was a failure. It had, in truth, fallen 
among thieves, but through them there was worked out, never- 
theless, the changed ideal of manhood. And the old Greek 
families as truly exhibit it, for they drew away from public 



56 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

affairs to the privacy of their homes ; and some of them in trea- 
son, perhaps to carry out their oath, went over to the side of 
Sparta in the struggles between the two states. It is possible, 
and undoubtedly correct, to see in this a preparation for what is 
called Hellenism ; but it should be noted that that, as this, 
came about through the spread and change of the moral ideal. 

Neither the splendor of the Age of Pericles nor the gross 
corruption about 430 B. C. seems to represent the real condition 
of affairs and the true development. The last was in a way the 
result of the first ; very much as to-day we see men, who have 
suddenly come to wealth, live in. elegance and retain their good 
sense, while, in instances not a few, their children or grand- 
children show a great degeneration. After both phases had 
passed, the political condition seems to have been really more 
stable than before. Of this resultant period, Grote is led to say, 
" there are no acts which attest so large a measure of virtue and 
judgment pervading the whole people as the proceedings after 
the Four Hundred and the Thirty." ' This may be thought, 
perhaps, an over-estimate, but something tolerably near it might 
be construed from the progress of the ideal. Men had finally 
learned by hard experience that there was a large place for con- 
trol in both political and individual freedom. 

The whole development and the subsequent political ruin at 
Athens were foretold and earlier experienced by 
similar Develop- the Ionian colonies. In the first days of the Ath- 
ment in ionia enian state, the numerous alien and Greek-alien 

residents, as they could not become citizens, and 
were rather a growing menace to the city, were compelled, periodi- 
cally, to emigrate and form colonies, distant from the mother 
state. These colonists were Greeks in all but name and blood, 
and their foster-mother's selfish, aristocratic tendencies, and the 
Greek ideal, appear in their history. By energetic activity, 
they soon built up a well-ordered government, and became the 
leaders of the surrounding peoples, keeping themselves, how- 
ever, distinctly separate from them. Democracy was reached 
here about a century sooner than at Athens, since it was possi- 
ble without hindrance to put into immediate action the ideal of 
the people at home. And when, at a later time, these cities 
refused to unite with one another, each holding to its own in- 



1 Grote : History of Greece, viii : 176. 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 57 

dividualism and superiority, they fell a prey to Lydia and to 
Persia in turn, long before the conquests of Philip and 
Alexander. 

Among the Greeks at home, there were always some who saw 
the advantages of political unity, but to cause the 
majority to endorse any such project, there must Attempts at 

be some immediate gain apparent. The first at- Greek unity 

tempt at union was on a religious basis, the Am- 
phictyonic League. This for a long time held its own, because of 
its relation to the great festivals; but at no time was the bond very 
close, and the league, as a league of the states for confederacy 
in government, was practically of little significance. The only 
kind of political union which could survive the birth was, in the 
nature of the case, some sort of a supremacy. On this basis, there 
were established the successive hegemonies of Athens, of Sparta, 
of Thebes, and of Macedon. Only the last, however, was per- 
manent, and it was a conquest. So long as each state was of 
sovereign power, it refused to become in any sense tributary, 
except under compulsion, and the influence of the ideal of indi- 
vidual aggrandizement made it the immediate foe of all its 
neighbors. Moreover, the common feeling of Greece sided with 
the state, which, having joined a league or been subjected to 
another state, attempted to free itself and to assert its own 
autonomy. In still later times, the broadening of the ideal 
allowed of the formation of the Achaean League with somewhat 
better success, for at length the people had many of them come 
to see the ideal citizen as submitting all his rights to the good 
of the community, and however imperfectly this was realized, it 
was much better understood than in the earlier days. 

CAUSALITY. THE STATE 

1 Homeric state, .... Corresponds to place of family and of 

religious observances in the ideal. 

Community, To ideal of all men as laboring. 

Natural government, ... As the ideal is unconscious. 

2 Loss of power of family, . . Due to new political ideal. 
Oligarchy and tyranny, . . . Due to ideal to be realized against 

others, rather than in one's self. 
Class agitations, .... Due to growing consciousness of per- 
sonality. 

3 Tyranny of people, .... Due to surviving ideal. 
Democracy, ..... Due to ideal of personality. 

Liberty in state, .... Due to same and ideal of self-culture. 

4 Anarchy, corruption, and catering of Due to ideal of personal gratification. 

rulers to crowd, 
Apathy and withdrawal of old fam- Due to same and to ideal of elegant 
ilies from politics (and to Sparta), employment of leisure. 



58 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



CAUSALITY. GREEK CONFEDERACIES 



1 Amphictyonic League, . . . Corresponds to place of religious obser- 

vances in ideal. 

2 Hegemonies, ..... Due to ideal of good as attained against 

others. 

3 Development of ideal of individual cul- 

ture preparing way for 

4 Conquest, ..... Due to ideal of self-gratification and 

consequent apathy. 
Achaean League, . . . . Due to faint presence in ideal of con- 

trol as necessary to true freedom. 

Next in the order of institutions stands religion. We find 

its customs occupying, in the earlier days, a 

Religion— much larger place than they did in later times. 

Development in , . ... . . .. 

Religious Thought The deities of the home, the dead ancestors, 
gave to the youthful state its solidity ; in it, poli- 
tics was a religion. But when the ideal in a measure discon- 
nected man from his ancestors and made him act for, and more 
and more of, himself, religion and the tribe lost their supreme 
position. On the one hand, the Sophists, mirroring the popular 
mind, gave expression to the growing uncertainty about the 
gods. And on the other, Sophocles painted men and women 
as bringing the consequences of action upon themselves. The 
elders, it is true, discountenanced the Sophists, at bottom be- 
cause, in response to the new ideal, the Sophists had put the 
individual before the state. Yet the bitterness of the attack of 
the elders is proof that they, too, felt in some measure the un- 
easiness of the times. The fears which the elders entertained 
for the religious safety of Greece received their fulfilment in 
their children. They and their descendants, the later Greeks, 
took up philosophy almost as their religion, and sought from its 
ethical teachings a reasonable guide for their conduct. 

Even to the latest times, Homer was the moral and religious 

text-book of the young boys ; but so far as its 

in Religious mythology was concerned, his poetry was, at a 

Teaching J . , , . , , 

comparatively early time, in much the same re- 
gard that the legend of Santa Claus is to-day. It could not at- 
tempt to meet the religious needs of thinking men. Therefore 
the Mysteries were devised. "The greatest and best men of 
antiquity are unanimous in the opinion that they were created 
pure, and were intended to present high thoughts in an elevat- 
ing way " ; ' but it was not a great while before they degener- 

1 Taylor : Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries. 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



59 



ated, for the most part, into wild orgies. And none of the at- 
tempts to bring them back to their pristine vigor and purity 
restored them to their old position. That their teachings were 
always considered to be of great value is evident from the para- 
mount question in times of danger, " Have you been initiated?" 
Yet, even in the times of the Sophists, to a much greater ex- 
tent than we are accustomed to think, man had become " the 
measure of all things." 

The ideal of personality, in religion as elsewhere, struck off 
every external restraint that held men down, and philosophy, 
springing from one's self, was made the guide. Socrates' dae- 
mon was the first expression of that newly-discovered control 
from within, which gradually obtained recognition. 

To state this development in another form : In the early 
times, men trusted implicitly in the gods. In 
the transition period, as men came to realize Reiteration 

the enormities of the Olympians, their beliefs 
were seriously shaken. And to this uncertainty the Sophists 
added their teachings of the changeability of all things, empha- 
sizing meanwhile the excesses of the alleged divinities and 
spreading most skeptical views regarding them. Greek religion 
and the customary morality of Greece were thus, at the Attic 
period opposed, each to the other. And the Greek, as the re- 
sult of a progessive movement strictly in accord with the new 
individualistic ideal, was left entirely at a loss for a firm founda- 
tion of belief. With the speculative nature peculiar to him, he 
was consequently ready to accept any teachings of philosophy 
which could afford him even the narrowest sure footinsr. 



CAUSALITY, 

1 Worship of ancestors, 
Homeric religious conceptions, 

2 Lowering of position of gods, . 
Devising of mysteries, unrest, skep- 
ticism, and "man the measure 
of all things," .... 

3 Opposition of religion and morality, 

Socrates' daemon, and other similar 
recognitions of leading from 
within, ..... 

4 Adoption of philosophy for religion; 

Individual opinion and control, 



RELIGION 

Corresponds to place of family in ideal. 

Correspond to personal traits of the 
ideal. 

Due to growth of political ideal. 

Due to growing consciousness of per- 
sonality in the ideal. 

Due to ideal of perfection of person- 
ality. 

Due to same personal element in the 
ideal. 

Due to ideal of personal gratification 
and individual freedom. 



60 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

Coming now to the customs of social life, we see again the 

same development. In the early organization 

society— caste f society, there was a class division into noble- 

Divisions 

men and freemen, on the basis of birth. The 
place of this was taken in the city-state by aristocracy and de- 
mocracy, at first the survival of the old division, and later a 
distinction based on wealth. Finally, corresponding to an ideal 
which made every Greek a person, the whole citizen body was 
put on an equality before the law, in a pure democracy. (At 
various times aliens and slaves formed a large part of the popu- 
lation ; but they did not belong to the citizen classes.) 

CAUSALITY. CASTE 

1 Noblemen and freemen, based on Corresponds to physical ideal and to 

birth, ..... place of family in ideal. 

2 Aristocracy and democracy, . . Due to ideal of good as attained against 

others. 
Later division on wealth, . . .Due to growing consciousness of per- 

sonality. 

3 and 4 Democracy, .... Due to ideal of individual culture and 

perfection of personality. 
(Subject classes correspond to and arise from Greek aristocratic ideal.) 

The routine of ordinary life cannot vary much in its general 
outline. People must rise in the morning, and, 
Manner of Living at any rate, perform certain duties during the 
day. We find, however, a few changes in the 
course of Greek history. The table at which people sat in the 
early times gave way to the couch on which they reclined. 
The day, which was formerly passed at home, unless war en- 
gaged, was spent almost entirely away from home in the agora. 
And the public business which earlier filled the daytime so full, 
in the later times attracted but little disinterested attention. 
The business of society was the finding of its own enjoyment. 
The baths and the gymnasia were visited ; the theater, too, en- 
tertained ; and the day ended, perhaps, with revelling which 
made of the two days one. 

A notable characteristic of the early life was its hospitality, 
the institution of guest-friendship. This happy custom con- 
tinued for many generations, but with the change of life from 
that of the tribe to the city organization, and with the develop- 
ment of state antagonism, two manifestations of a new ideal, 
it rapidly decayed. Only in rare instances, and among the 
old families, was it retained. 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 6 1 

CAUSALITY. MANNER OF LIVING 

I All eating at table, . . . Corresponds to place of family in 

ideal. 

Same. 

Greek-ness of ideal; utilitarian ele- 
ment (?); family element. 

Due to ideal of good as attained against 
others. 

Due to citizen ideal. 



Day at home when not at war, 
Guest-friendship, 

2 Decay of guest-friendship, 
and 

3 Day in agora on public business, 



Eating reclining, 



4 Day in ago?-a in search of enjoyment, Due to ideal of personal gratification. 



To same, and ideal of elegance. 



The accompaniments of the feasts in the earlier days were 
in keeping with the warlike ideal of an heroic 
race. Bards sang of the heroes, and of the Festal 
gods who, in the likeness of men, helped their Entertainments 
favorites in time of need. And ministering at 
once to the desire for entertainment and to the religious emo- 
tions, they stimulated and elevated the worthy men. But for 
the later times, with their desire for personal gratification, the 
glories of the gods and the heroes would not suffice, and effem- 
inating and elaborate music and the mimes were introduced. 
The latter were, at first, dramatic performances in dialogue, but 
in the later times, they showed signs of the same degeneration 
that tainted other things, and ministered to the passions, rather 
than to the intellect and to the pure emotions. 

CAUSALITY. ENTERTAINMENTS 

1 Songs of heroes by bards, . . Correspond to physical, external ideal. 

2 and 3 Elaborate music, becoming Due to ideal of individual culture with 

effeminate, and mimes, . . touch of following. 

4 Degeneration of mimes and other Due to ideal of personal self-gratifica- 
forms of amusement, . . tion. 

The typical entertainments of Greece and the centers of 
her social life, aside from the agora, were the 
games and the theater. The former in the The Games . Their 
early days, and the latter in the palmy days of seriousness 
the empire, reached each its zenith. The 
great games were the Olympian, and at their quadrennial 
occurrence, men, both slave and free, noble and ignoble, flocked 
to Elis from all over Greece. Women alone — except the 
priestess of Demeter — were not allowed to be present. The 
festivals were primarily religious, and the same idea that made 
worship to the gods essential also fixed the character of that 
worship. Not only were there votive offerings to them, but the 
performance of the athletic exercises was in their honor. The 



62 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

gods were thought to take delight in and command the sports. 
Yet this " sport " in itself was not like what we designate by 
the word to-day. The physical emphasis of the ideal, and the 
view of the gods as encouraging the sports per se — in reality 
the second is the manifestation of the presence of the first — 
gave to the games a seriousness which it is hard for us to 
imagine. The strength of hereditary custom kept this serious- 
ness alive long after the ideal had lost its former power. But 
gradually it, too, was lost, and so much did the games change in 
character, and so notorious did they become, that Cicero resented 
as an insult the statement that he was present at their celebra- 
tion. 

Pan-Hellenic in their nature, these festivals were an out- 
growth of the Greek spirit. The ideal of the Greeks as equal 
made all Greeks, and no one else, eligible to competition ; and 
victory was esteemed the great honor, not of the winner only, 
but of his state. 

The growing subjectivity of the ideal was paralleled by a 
change in the character of the contests. At 
character of the nrst limited to the foot-race, and then to the 
contests contests of the trumpeters and to foot-races, 

wrestling matches, and the pentathlon, there 
were gradually introduced trials of skill which called for train- 
ing of the eye and ear. A contest in music developed quite 
early from that of the trumpeters ; there were contests in 
poetry and in the arts ; and the philosophers went to the games 
to discuss their doctrines — perhaps to dispute, if there were 
any who opposed them. Chariot races, too, were introduced, 
affording great opportunity for display, and making it possible 
also for one to win the wreath, not by personal ability, but by 
wealth. The final stage of this growing consciousness is seen 
in the dramatic contests at Athens, which have given us the 
trilogies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. 

CAUSALITY. GAMES 

1 Religious festivals and seriousness, Correspond to place of family and re- 

ligion in ideal. 
Only Hellenic, but Pan-Hellenic, . To Greek-ness of ideal. 

Only athletic contests, . . . To physical ideal. 

2 Introduction of skilled contests, . Due to intellectual growth in the ideal. 
Chariot races, .... Due to consciousness of personality 

growing, and to mercenary tenden- 
cy (which may only be a side of 
this). 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



63 



3 and 4 Loss of seriousness, . . Due to loss of place of family and re- 

ligion in ideal, i. e., growing per- 
sonality. 
Dramatic contests, .... Due to new ideal of individual cul- 
ture 
And in their evolution, to ideal of personal self-gratification. 

The stage of Athens was also typical, and in the later days 
was marked by all the disgraces which might 
be seen in the streets. Some declare that the The Theater 

characteristic representations set forth do not 
necessarily show an evil society, or one totally vitiated ; that 
the Athenians were well taught by example, by the sight of 
that which is evil and its consequences to avoid it. It may be 
so, and we will gladly make all the allowance we can for un- 
usual intellectual abilities, even in the very young, so that they 
might not linger on the details of any of the scenes enacted, but 
hold in memory only the truth which they portrayed. But we 
are constrained to think that it was not the teachings of the 
Sophists that undermined Greek morality, so much as the corrupt 
mythology and the sensual productions of the theater. While a 
few saw underneath the symbols the great principle whose incul- 
cation may have been intended, the great multitude beheld 
chiefly representations which gratified the senses, and seemed 
to them to justify immorality. 1 For in their ideal of personal 
freedom, as we already have said more than once, the element 
of necessary restraint was largely wanting. 

In the sketches which history has left us of the Athenian 
society of these times, there is material for a 
dark picture. Judicial trials had never been Athenian society 
conducted on what we to-day should call princi- about ^° BX - 
pies of justice, and the arbitrariness of the old 
council and the chief who presided over it still existed. But 
to this there was added, not the previous bias of honor and 
consideration of the public good, but a large item of personal 
gain. Bribery was common, and for the most part uncon- 
demned, unless it was to the positive detriment of the state ; 
and even then it was not much more than frowned upon. The 
good man was identified with the one who had wealth with 
which to provide for his pleasure. Gloss them over as we may, 
the licentiousness, the openly recognized hetairae, the preva- 



1 Duruy : History of Greece, i : 431. 



64 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

lence of irreligion, the extravagance, and, withal, the laziness 
of Athens were unknown to the Greeks of the previous ages. 
Sumptuary laws were passed from time to time. The maximum 
number of guests at an evening entertainment and the expense 
of those entertainments were determined by law. The highest 
allowed amount of individual fortune was fixed, and laws were 
passed attacking the general improvidence ; but without effect. 
The condition of Athens about 430 has few parallels in history. 
It was a combination of the very highest intellectual attain- 
ment in the field of philosophy and theoretical morality with the 
greatest inherent wickedness and badness. Plato is admirably 
pictured by Benn in his "Greek Philosophers" as a moral 
reformer, but coming even forty years later, when its previous fury 
had Seen reduced, he could not stem the tide. It still swept on, 
and only as they suited the popular cry, in perverted Epicurean- 
ism, did his doctrines touch the common life. Later Athenian 
society, however, shows on the whole a gradual ascent, and a 
slow recuperation in the ethics of individual living. There is 
the appearance of a certain approach to soundness which corre- 
sponds to the Hellenic ideal. 

A few customs which we have not yet noted show, on the 

whole, an advance from the time of Homer in 
Development of tne recognition of the rights of humanity. In 
other customs the early days the orphan had no rights which 

people must respect ; he was robbed of his pat- 
rimony and abandoned by those who had been his father's 
friends ; but in Athens there were special laws for the protec- 
tion of the persons and property of orphan minors. To them, 
as well as to all other Greek-born residents, the new ideal guar- 
anteed a measure of security. It was customary for the heroes 
to pierce with spears the bodies of those slain in battle, and to 
offer them all sorts of indignities ; but by reason of the new 
ideal of personality, for an Athenian of the Age of Pericles to 
maltreat in any way the body of an enemy was a deep disgrace, 
even though it might appear to find some justification in cir- 
cumstances. So the right of private revenge on the murderer, 
which had belonged to every man as against the wrong-doer, 
was exchanged for orderly trial by jury, which acknowledged 
rights on both sides. The crime was not thought of chiefly as 
a deed of violence, but as an act against the city and the gods. 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 65 

Pending judgment, the accused was interdicted from worship 
and from public places, and if found guilty of entering the for- 
bidden enclosures, he was sentenced by the state to death or 
banishment. Again, this turning to unity, by which the city 
was foremost in thought, brought it about that the order of 
battle was no longer single combat, but the onset or defence of 
a disciplined army. Likewise, the head of the state was no 
longer simply the leader and the " shepherd of the people," but 
the wise and astute legislator, who maintains a preconcerted 
system of laws. 

IV— PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING 
TO INDIVIDUAL CULTURE 1 

There is one line of development at which we have not 
yet looked, and it is of great importance, that in the education 
of the youth of Greece. In the early days, the training of child- 
hood was under the care of the mother, to keep the boys from 
contamination and to rear successive generations of pure 
Greeks. At the family hearth, they were taught the worship of 
the gods, and acquired the general, fundamental knowledge 
necessary for life. The education of youth was largely for war. 
The muscles were hardened, and keenness of sight and accuracy 
of aim cultivated in the chase. Young men also learned the 
use of the common implements, and were often skillful players 
on the citJiera. But in the early culture, so largely physical, 
there was small play for, and therefore little education of, the 
intellect. We may say, with almost literal truth, it was not 
known. Moral teaching was largely by example. The ideal 
of courage and of bravery in combat was early inculcated, and it 
was enforced by the approval of the family and the gods. 

In the period of transition, education became more and more 
intellectual, and moral teaching was by precept 
as well as example. There was a growing de- Transitional and 
mand for scientific knowledge. Greek adventur- Attic -instruction 
ers brought back from other lands many new 
facts. On the one hand, the sages attempted from these 
materials daringly to reconstruct the universe, and as, on the 
other, they looked out on life, their thinking shaped itself in 
maxims for the guidance of conduct. No longer was the object 



1 For a thorough consideration, see Davidson : Aristotle and Early Educational Ideals. 

5 



66 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

of instruction the simple training of warriors. The man of 
whom every boy was conceived to be the father was a citizen, 
fully able to perform his duties as such, both in war and in 
peace. So the physical training became systematic, under the 
care of a director and in a public gymnasium. There was 
a careful course of work, the end of which was strength and 
symmetry of development, together with grace and ease of 
movement. 

Homer was the text-book which each boy learned by heart, 
and from which, primarily, his moral ideas were drawn. The 
action of the epic, as we have taken occasion to remark in our 
study of the ideal, is decidedly utilitarian ; and so the boy was 
tacitly trained to do certain things as customary, and certain 
others as bringing him advantages. Yet there was a moral 
vein in the teaching. Whereas, in Sparta, boys were instructed 
to steal, if they could do so without being found out, in the 
Athenian gymnasium, the theft of any article above ten 
drachmae in value was punished, not by any light penalty, but 
by death (so authoritative were made thus early in life the laws 
and the welfare of the state). 

In this transition period, the instruction was at home and 
private, if not as by a private tutor, yet not more 
Teachers common than that of a "select" school. But 

toward the end of the first period came the 
Sophists, the first University teachers and the precursors of 
the public schools. The pressing demand was for men com- 
petent to train a higher type of citizen than the mere soldier — 
the epliebus of the Spartans, able to obey orders unquestioningly 
but not to think intelligently for himself — and to satisfy this 
they had arisen. The object was now to fit men for the under- 
standing and proper execution of political affairs. The Sophists 
were shrewd men, and, understanding the situation, undertook 
to fulfill the present want and nothing more. Traveling all 
over Greece, they carried to the youths simply the learning of 
which they themselves had become possessed, and discussed 
with them matters relating to common life. These teachers 
have been likened in their office to our newspapers, and the 
education which they afforded was of much the same character, 
relating to the topics of the clay and practical. Their training 
was also somewhat like that of the college " coach." They 
gave mainly a superficial knowledge, but it met the demand. 



GREEK IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



6 7 



In their teachings, the Sophists soon developed specialties, 
and urged the value of certain accomplishments which are the 
results, rather than the essence, of true learning and culture. 
The elders, as guardians of the state, naturally attacked them, 
for much learning had somewhat unbalanced the minds of these 
rhetoricians, and they taught doubt and contingency in every- 
thing, to the real subversion of morality and good citizenship. 
To the deep thinkers, their shallowness too, was probably some- 
what disgusting. But we should not estimate them below 
their real worth, and so fall into the error which we ourselves 
criticise. On the whole, they were a class of investigators 
highly deserving the honor which was given them by some, 
though they were with reason maligned by others. Socrates 
differed from them in that he taught something to take the 
place of that which he had removed ; he was a constructive, as 
well as a destructive thinker. Unfortunately, men of his stamp 
were not the typical instructors of Athenian youth. Yet, they 
all, in their elevation of the individual mind, made their teach- 
ings correspond to the predominant ideal of personality. 

In still later times, the education was in large degree 
physical, but the previous object of development 
was not active. The end was refinement and Hellenic 

dilettanteism. Grace and enjoyment were most 
sought in physical development and gymnastic exercise. 
Whereas these had been more or less objects of admiration, 
they now became ends of action. In intellectual culture, for 
the majority, the aim was success in rhetorical debate, and per- 
sonal gain through the contests of the dicastery. An impor- 
tant educational factor of these times was the schools of the 
philosophers. They show the continued working of the subject- 
ive ideal, and are characteristic of the intellectual bent of the 
Greek mind. So far as the general morality of the people is 
concerned, the schools seem to have exercised an elevating in- 
fluence, and had Athens retained her independence, there was 
still the moral foundation for a very high civilization. But as a 
subject state, the incentives to revolution were not many; more- 
over, the creative strength and virility of the race seem to have 
been spent. The Athenians were content to live on in culture. 
Though no longer aggressive, their education in its apparent 
object, much more than that of any previous age, made for the 



68 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

training of the individual personality in all its spheres, as it 
was understood by the great philosophers. The doctrines of 
the schools, reduced somewhat and diluted for the popular 
comprehension, attained a real influence in Greek life, and they 
present, in their realization, perhaps the most cultured type of 
Greek history, a man thoroughly "refined," though not 
particularly virile. 

CAUSALITY. EDUCATION 

(Education is simply the leading out of life to correspond to the ideal.) 

1 Education at home, . . . Corresponds to place of family in ideal. 
Religious, ..... To place of religion in ideal and thus 

indirectly to the same. 
For war, by chase, physical, . . To physical ideal. 
Emphasis on bravery, . . . Shows effect of same ideal. 

Morality taught in example, . . Shows same ideal. 

2 Private instruction, decreasing, . To decreasing place of family in ideal. 
2 and 3 More intellectual scientific To intellectual growth of ideal. 

knowledge, morality by precept, 

Politico-utilitarian morality, . . Due to political ideal. 

Systematic public gymnasia, to train 

citizens, ..... Due to same. 

Sophists, ..... Due to ideal of individual culture. 

4 For grace and enjoyment, . . Due to ideal of pleasure. 

Rhetorical success and personal To ideal of self-gratification. 

gain, 

Schools of philosophers, . . . Due to ideal of personality in its better 

elements. 

V— OTHER PARALLEL DEVELOPMENTS 

There are other phenomena which exhibit the same develop- 
ment of the ideal, although, in strictness, they 
Music do not fall under the head of institutions. 

Music, in the early days, while in itself a slave 
to words, was in its character martial and in its effects stimu- 
lating. In the middle period, perhaps because of the new 
emotional element which it was called on to portray, it became 
somewhat effeminate. At first this tendency was sharply re- 
buked ; the seductive strains, 

" Softly sweet in Lydian measure," 

were thought to disturb and endanger morality. But, in the 
later days, the tunes were for the most part light and with the 
intent of giving pleasure ; and the softness which had met with 
so cold a reception was now passed over in silence, or, mayhap, 
it was loudly welcomed. 



OTHER PARALLEL DEVELOPMENTS fig 

In literature, in the early period, comporting with the ex- 
ternality of the ideal, we find tales relating to the 
heroic deeds of battle or to the actions of the Literature 

personified forces of nature. The middle period 
with its growing interest in man, although yet occupied with 
the manifestation of his self, rather than with that self itself, 
expressed its feelings in lyrics, half moral, which are best fitted 
to mirror a life chiefly consisting in emotions and actions. 
The typical writing of the later period is that in which the sub- 
jectivity of the ideal finds its fullest expression, philosophic 
prose. From this, the advance is to criticism, rather than crea- 
tion, in all departments. Between the lyrics and philosophy 
stand the dramatic monuments, combining the expression of the 
emotions of human nature with the introspective relation of the 
facts of man's self-consciousness. 

There is this same development in ethical theory and in 
the nature of philosophy. The Homeric men 
looked out on life without any very definitely Ethics 

recognized theory of conduct. They did, in 
general, what came first to hand. Next, the sages laid down 
their maxims of morality ; but these were from a popular point 
of view, and were the outcome of the lives of individual men, 
rather than the expression of any system. In the Periclean 
Age, we have moral teaching which is to some extent systematic; 
yet it was largely the expression of men's own personalities, as 
is seen, for instance, in Socrates' incarnation of his own theory. 
Later, there were the regulated systems of ethical thought, 
founded on Aristotle's Ethics. The Stoics and Epicureans, 
each securing a half-truth, erected it into a systematic guide of 
conduct. 

So too, early philosophy was a cosmology; man tried to 
harmonize surrounding nature. The first step 
from this was to man's actions. The early philosophy 

question as to nature received a final answer 
from Leucippus, 1 and of necessity, man became the subject of 
inquiry. This investigation had first to do with his outward 
action ; then it became introspective and psychological, reach- 
ing below the surface to the springs of action. Its later expres- 
sion was in the criticism of pre-existing theories, and not in the 
creation of new ones. 



1 Burnet : Early Greek Philosophy. 



70 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



In the three great dramatists, we have this same progress 
repeated in miniature. Aeschylus is the portrayer 
The Three Great of the ideal of the past. The great forces are 
Dramatists those of nature, and the inexorable Fates deter- 

mine the bounds of mortal life. The view is 
altogether outward ; the characteristic excellences are those of 
the heroes. The moral teachings are after the manner of those 
of the sages. Sophocles depicts idealized persons ; he repre- 
sents man as bringing the punishments of action upon himself. 
He is typical of the new psychological school of thinkers, to 
which also belong Thucydides and the three philosophers. They 
investigate man's nature, and put into practice the Socratic 
motto, " Know thyself." Euripides is critical, morose, and 
peevish ; he presents man as enervated, and there is a notice- 
able decline in the strength of individual action. 

We may find the early and late stages of Greece illustrated, 

in their general aspects, in the contemporary life 

Sparta and Athens f Athens and Sparta 450-400 B. C. Spartan 

as Typical of Early 

and Later stages policy held to the old customs, and as much as 
possible, kept Spartans separate from the rest 
of the Greeks. A small state, watched over by officials of a 
common mind in this regard, was able, for many generations, to 
keep its primitive form, in spite of the workings of the ideal in 
the minds of the people. Among the subject Helots, the most 
progressive were promptly dispatched, their assassination fur- 
nishing the youths, the future guardians of the state, with their 
first practical instruction in the tactics to be pursued. In those 
who were born Spartans, the spirit of progress was repressed by 
education and custom. The Spartan ideal was the citizen, 
always ready for war, and a member of a state which depended 
upon war for its prestige. 

On the other hand, what was the Athenian ideal ? There 
are some who maintain that the Spartan warrior and the Spar- 
tan matron were the ideal of all the Greeks, including the 
Athenians. We do not think this is correct. For, in the first 
place, some say that the life of the city, i. e., of Athens, was 
more typical of Greece than the soldier life and the severe 
training of Sparta. In fact, the Spartans boasted that they 
alone of all the Greeks had held true to the old ideal. Then, 
too, the ideal of the Athenian had a deeper content than that of 



OTHER PARALLEL DEVELOPMENTS 



71 



the 'Spartan ; the ideal of the latter was of physical develop- 
ment, and he fulfiled it. No doubt the Athenian admired the 
superb strength and the endurance of the Spartan youths, and 
perhaps their great filial devotion and respect for old age. But 
what they admired was not therefore their ideal. Who shall say 
that many an Athenian youth, while with his eyes he watched 
the actions of those bitter rivals of his city, was not mentally 
thankful that the gods or the fates or some kind providence had 
spared him the rigors and severities of the Spartan discipline ? 
No, the ideals of the two were different. While all the rest of 
Greece, and Athens in particular, had been moving forward, 
Sparta had remained practically still. Now she stood alone, 
the mark of a past type of manhood and of human civilization, 
a sort of milestone to tell men that civilization in its march had 
passed that way. And finally the change which had come in 
the other states came here also, with the great upheaval of civil 
war. But it was too late, and now the new ideal was not able 
to attain adequate manifestation. While down along the ages 
and, indeed, to-day, in this nineteenth century and this new- 
found world, the memory of Athens is richly fragrant because 
of her additions, even to our Western life, Sparta is remembered 
only as are those who by their ill-success exhort men not to fol- 
low in their footsteps. 

This is not the place for a digression on the evil of repress- 
ing the free working and manifestation of the ideal of a people, 
but there are some quite apparent lessons which may be drawn 
from this comparative development, and with considerable profit. 

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Chapter II 

THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF ROMAN 
IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

If we may believe tradition, Rome sprang into existence 
through the direct efforts of an organized band of men. The 
founding of the city was not the origin of a fresh civilization, 
but the formation of a new community on the basis of the pre- 
ceding Etruscan order. For some time, then, institutions 
should correspond very closely to the ideal, as its specific mani- 
festations. 

I — THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAL 

The early ideal demanded above all else the service and 
defence of the state. Patriotism was the great 
duty ; to the welfare of the city the ideal man Early Roman 

would sacrifice everything. The virtue, the Ideal 

energy, the confidence of Rome all flowed in 
this one channel. Yet the times when war did not summon 
were not spent in ease. Then the ideal man tilled his farm, 
for he was full of activity. 

Closely interwoven with devotion to the state was the main- 
tenance of the family and the gens. Here the ideal called not 
simply for the rearing of a family ; it made the hearth the 
father's throne, and the ideal man was as much the unques- 
tioned ruler in the familia, as he was the obedient servant in 
the state. 

So far as the gods were concerned, the ideal man had their 
help. When he asked for their aid, he did so with vows which 
he was very careful to keep ; and, indeed, he never broke his 
oath, either with the gods or with men. 

In private life the ideal called for morality and virtue. And 
to the virtue there attached that military flavor which its deri- 
vation from the word meaning hero, vir, would indicate. Man- 
hood was rude and passionate, but sturdy. 

To put this in fewer words : The ideal man of early Rome 



n 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



was a Roman citizen, glorying in his name and desiring the 
maintenance of the Roman line, therefore the head of a family ; 
devoted to the defence of Rome, whose call had power over 
him above all else, therefore a warrior. In the family he was a 
despot, but in the state the subject of the common will. In 
time of peace his pursuit was husbandry. His virtue was in 
fighting bravely for the defence of Rome, in upholding his gens 
and family, in keeping faith with the gods and with his fellows, 
and in living in purity and frugality. So Duruy declares 1 that 
the sum of virtues in these early Romans was virtus et pietas ; 
and these two called for courage and force, for immoveable 
firmness and for patience in work, for respect to the gods, the 
ancestors, and the fatherland, the family, and the established 
laws and discipline. 

It is difficult, in the centuries which immediately follow, to 

trace a chronological development of the ideal, 
chronological If we regard the early period as extending to 

Development the beginning of the plebeian struggles and the 

secession to the Sacred Mount in 494 B. C, we 
see next, in the history of institutions, a strife between 
patricians and plebeians which lasts till 286. But so far as the 
ideal is concerned, this does not seem to have been a period of 
great change. We note that at its close the maintenance of 
the glory of Rome had passed out of the hands of the old 
families into those of the common people. But their ideal 
seems to have been much the same as that of those who to 
them were the old Romans, and future generations looked back 
to these plebeians as the incarnation of what they in turn called 
the old Roman virtues. In the class strife, however, while all 
were ready to answer the call to the defence of Rome, there 
was a strong union of individual good with the success of the 
party, as well as with that of the state. When the contest was 
over there was practically one party — the aggressive and 
politically-minded plebs. But the idea in which the party and 
the state were one with the individual end of action soon made 
a differentiation, and while at the summit of the Republic — 
from 286 to the end of the Punic wars, setting thus an arbitrary 
date, 146 — everything seemed in the best condition, there was 
a change working underneath. 



1 Duruy: History of Rome, i: 140. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 75 

There may be, in the acts which emanate from them, but 
little apparent difference between an ideal of 
the state as the sum of all action and all indi- Latent 

vidual ends, and an ideal calling for the aggran- change 

dizement of the state. But there is a real 
difference, which is perhaps most manifest in the extent to 
which self-sacrifice is a part of the ideal. There is no question 
as to the presence of this in the early ideal. The state was above 
all. Brutus gave up his sons that the laws of the common- 
wealth might not be overridden and that its authority might be 
sustained. It is true that we see the same thing in the Punic 
wars, that Regulus and other citizens, like true heroes, gave up 
themselves and their own for the defence of the state. But 
they were increasingly thought of as belonging to the old 
school. The spirit of conquest was not that of defence. When 
the spring of action is not patriotism primarily, but aggrandize- 
ment, it may at first center in the state, but the steps are not 
difficult by which its nature changes to the aggrandizement of 
family and then of self. So the ideal did not demand virtuous 
living so much as it demanded that which was honorable ; and, 
unfortunately, between the two there may be considerable 
difference. As far as individual morality was concerned, there 
was little, if any, immediate change. But the important thing 
is that there had been a slight change in the character of the 
ideal, one which was growing, and which made its appearance 
in the luxurious selfishness and the civil dissensions of the later 
days. 

The next period we date from the conquest of the Mediter- 
ranean, in 146, to the accession of Augustus, 
B. C. 29. This was really a time of transition Idea i of the 
in the ideal as well as in politics. The idea of Later Re P ublic 
good operative in men's minds was of personal 
gain, the outgrowth which the slight change in the third cen- 
tury foreshadowed. Of its gradual manifestation we shall 
be able to speak at length under the head of institutions. 
Suffice it now to say, that the struggle was not for honorable 
citizenship. Lucilius declares, "To-day gold holds the place of 
virtue, and by what thou hast thy worth will be measured." 
Mommsen says that "the preservation and increase of wealth 
positively became a part of the public morality," and that 



76 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

" deep-rooted immorality ate into the heart of the common- 
wealth, and substituted an absolute selfishness for humanity 
and patriotism." ' Any one of the triumvirs is in large 
measure typical of the aims and ideals of this epoch. Men 
sought power and pleasure, and the pursuit of either brought 
in its train the evils and corruptions of immorality. The desire 
was for luxury and display, and for sensual enjoyment. Men 
lamented the ancient virtues, but they cared not for them. 
Men talked like Cato, but they lived as did Lucullus. The 
ideal was not of a person guided or restrained in his actions ; 
control of any kind was a species of nightmare, of which men 
wished with all their hearts to be rid ; and yet they did not 
value political liberty, and without objection they saw it vanish. 
The sphere of life in which they asked license was left to them, 
but they lost the vastly more important freedom, of which but 
few of them were aware. 

Here we pause to review the parallel development of Roman 
institutions, for with the early empire, or, indeed, before it, the 
Roman character was lost. The ideal of the Greeks had its 
influence, in company with that of other nations, and we have 
no longer Rome, but the Roman world. From the time of the 
first contact of Rome with Greece this had been true in in- 
creasing measure, and now the moral unit was not any one 
nation, but the empire. 

II — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING TO 
THE SUBJUGATION OF NATURE 

Had it been our privilege some day to step into early Rome, 
the antiquarians tell us that we would have 
MateriaI found a town laid out very irregularly, and com- 

Buiidings posed of thatched huts — save a few buildings 

of a better class, those dedicated to the wor- 
ship of the national divinities. This was the condition of 
things down to the sack of Rome by Brennus. When the 
people returned from their enforced exodus, the town was re- 
built on a larger and more respectable scale, but in the same 
irregular manner. Still the public buildings were far better 
and more imposing than the homes of the citizens. In fact, 
men gloried in their rude habitations, contrasting so strongly 



1 Mommsen: History of Rome, ii : 454, 460. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



77 



with the stately and magnificent senate chamber. The city of 
the dead bore, too, the same marks ; the tombs were small and 
without ornaments to attract attention. In the plans of the 
houses the windows were in the second story, and would seem 
to indicate a certain seclusion, the reflex of the carefully 
guarded home-life of the republic. This is the " city of brick 
and wood." It did not, however, retain its "provincial" charac- 
ter. The immense plunder which flowed into the capital from 
the foreign wars became visible in the buildings of the city. 
Already, at the time of the second Punic war, some houses bore 
the marks of the luxury of Tarentum, and we read that the 
tomb of the Scipios was decorated in the fashion of the Greek 
art. Thenceforth the domi of the well-to-do grew more and 
more elegant, and the dwellings of the rich became very osten- 
tatious. Not that there was no corresponding change in the 
public buildings — in 131, a certain Metellus erected a temple 
entirely of marble — but there was not the contrast which had 
formerly been marked between the homes of the citizens and 
the residences of the glory of the nation. 

This tendency to enrich individual environment appears in 
the decoration of the houses. Until the time 
of the Punic wars, art had been sacerdotal and Decorations 

connected with the beautifying of the temples ; 
but now it turned to the amenities of common life, and sought 
to make them more pleasing by adding to the beauty of their 
surroundings. It would seem that the walls of almost all 
dwellings bore decorations of some kind in colors. Landscapes 
and pictures of still-life were common, and there have been 
found many figure paintings which show the influence of the 
Greek innovations. In the time of Augustus the development 
reached a great height of luxury. The decorations of many 
buildings were of ivory and marble, valuable woods and precious 
stones. The magnificence of private houses was such as to 
excite more and more prominent mention, and in place of the 
simple tombs there were the ornate mausolea and moles. 

There are two things which show us the parallelism of this 
change with the development of the ideal ; the beautiful and 
costly ornaments were had, not because they were the best, 
and so would be more useful than any others, nor because of 
their intrinsic value, but rather for the display their owner 



yS IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

could thus make and the notoriety they would bring him. And 
of the pictures and decorations of the wall, one historian says 
with commendable briefness, "they were often of a character 
exceedingly unfavorable to purity of mind." 

The same tendency to luxuriousness is seen in matters per- 
taining to food and drink. In the early days 
Luxury the fare was frugal and life in all its aspects 

was hard and austere. So it continued for a 
long time, but the sudden increase of riches smoothed the way 
to new comforts and to extravagance. What had been to some 
extent a question of conscience was evidently now a matter of 
poverty only. Meals grew more and more elaborate. Formerly 
there had been only one warm meal a day ; now the prandium 
also was warm, and the coena was no longer limited to two 
courses. Of some persons it is related that they had seven 
courses, and dined alone. Men did not sit at meals as formerly, 
but, according to the Greek custom, they reclined, and the 
triclinarium was made one of the pleasantest rooms in the 
house. The banqueting hall was most sumptuously furnished. 
Great extravagance was displayed in the appointments of the 
table, and in the settings and accompaniments of the feast 
expense seems to have been disregarded. For a dinner 25,000 
sesterces was not considered an excessive amount, and for an 
ordinary meal the outlay was by no means small. 

These things, however, were not allowed to continue with- 
out protest, for at first they were affected by only the " Four 
Hundred " of Rome. The body of the people did not share 
them, and were, indeed, opposed to them, as they showed by 
the sumptuary laws which they enacted. It was in these 
earlier days that Cato announced his intention of dealing with 
these follies by law, should he be elected censor ; and he did 
not forget his declaration when he found himself in office. He 
and his party seem to have conserved Roman frugality and 
virtue to a considerable degree, but striking at symptoms rather 
than at the root of the disease, they could not effect a cure. 
So there were, all along, some who saw the evils of luxury and 
tried to stem the tide, but as the people, and not the nobility 
alone, gradually became involved, as the people adopted the 
ideal of self-gratification, they were able to accomplish less and 
less — for the people had chosen against them. 



ROMAN /DEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 79 

The facts regarding the luxuriousness of the later days of 
the Republic are, in themselves, enough to oc- 
cupy a volume. The richness and ostentation This Luxury on i y a 
of private houses, both within and without, the Beginning 
massive ornaments of the vehicles, the change 
in dress both of men and of women (against which Cato pro- 
tested so vehemently after the second Punic war), the example 
of the languid Crispinus, who had a set of finger rings for win- 
ter wear, and because, forsooth, they were too heavy, some of 
lighter weight for the hot summer — these are only samples. 
The more we study the period, the more we are compelled to 
agree with Livy, when he says, " Nevertheless, those innova- 
tions which were then (second Punic war) looked on as remark- 
able were scarcely even the seeds of future luxury." 

If we were reading with an eye jealous for the glory of 
Rome, there are two facts here which ought to 
make us very solicitous. Both of them show the two Reasons for 
spread of the new ideal. The luxury at which Future of Rome 
we are later astonished was introduced into the 
city, not by foreigners, nor by the rabble of Rome, nor by 
Roman women. It was brought in by her soldiers, those who 
in their frugality and hardiness had been the foundation of her 
greatness. Then, too, the object of the new development was 
not simply comfort. If it was that at first, it soon passed to 
the love of enjoyment and to the desire for display. It had 
been a virtue of the early Roman life that it was real — as it 
was, so it appeared ; but now the early simplicity was gone, and 
with it its reality. Life was almost a sham ; the important 
thing was to keep up appearances and to surpass one's fellows 
in display. Indeed, the one great end, the object of an expen- 
sive dinner, was that the name of its giver might be on every 
one's lips. How unlike the rivalries of their sturdy ancestors 
for honor and renown on the hard-fought field of battle. But, 
mayhap, their ancestors did not fight for Rome, and they them- 
selves are not of Roman blood ! 

1 Livy, xxxviii : 6. 



So IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

CAUSALITY. MATERIAL WELFARE 

i Poor dwellings and imposing public Correspond to ideal of devotion to the 
buildings, .... state. 

Tombs unornamented, art sacer- To same. 

dotal, 

Frugal living, .... To same. 

Seclusion of house, ... To ideal of virtuous, pure living ; to 

place of family in ideal. 
I c. Loss of contrast, .... Due to ideal of family and personal ag- 
grandizement. 
Tombs decorated, art in homes, . To same. 

Growing comfort, elaborateness, To ideal of gain, and growing ideal of 

and display — among only a few enjoyment and display, 

in this period, .... 
I and 2 Ostentatious and elegant homes, Due to ideal of display. 

Decorations the same and immoral, Due to same, and to ideal of sensual 

selfish gratification. 
Costly and elaborate meals, little Due to same, 
opposition, .... 

In early Rome there were two occupations, war and agricul- 
ture ; and of the two, war was the chief. Every- 
man expected to work, to do something ; but 

Occupations — i ° 

Early he was ready to drop everything else at the call 

of the city for his services in war. Cincinnatus, 
leaving his plow for the dictatorship, and returning again to 
the field when he had led the Roman arms to speedy victory, is 
typical of this early spirit in which patriotism was the highest 
motive. And this was the animus of every freeman. No 
standing army then was needed, for every citizen was a soldier. 
This was the condition of things till about the time of the 
Samnite wars ; but then a new period was en- 
Deveiopments tered upon. The army no longer existed for 

in the Army defence alone ; it was for conquest. The mili- 

tary formation was changed, and the swift-mov- 
ing legion took the place of the formidable but heavy phalanx. 
Instead of the citizen militia, there was a standing army of paid 
soldiery, and while to call them mercenaries, though technically 
correct, would by our ordinary understanding be wrong, this is 
what the legions soon became. There was, at the same time, a 
change in the temper of military obedience. To the early 
Romans war was a duty, but to the soldiers of the later republic 
it was a business ; in its essence it was a traffic in plunder. 
The early soldiers were great in their devotion to the common- 
wealth, and their patriotism was impersonal, a love for native 
land. The soldier of the legion, however, was busy in foreign 
campaigns, in which success was largely dependent upon the 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS gl 

will and ability of the commander, and the end was plunder and 
the glory of the general and his army. So devotion, while per- 
haps, as yet, not less hearty, was to the leader rather than to the 
state. The veterans of the army of Marius or of Sulla were 
the veterans of their respective commanders, while, for instance, 
those of Cato in Spain were the old soldiers of Rome or of the 
Spanish campaign. Corresponding to both these was the 
almost imperceptible change which had come over Roman 
strategics. At first, and for many years, the prowess of the 
soldiers, their strength and bravery, had decided the battle. 
But gradually craft was recognized as having a place in the arts 
of war, and men sought to defeat the enemy by deception, 
rather than by overpowering his forces. 

With the establishment of a standing army, we see the 
Roman citizen turn his attention to other pur- 
suits. Agriculture continued all along to be other Pursuits 

, . , , , li- i • 1 • ■, > n the Later 

highly honorable ; it was the occupation which Republic 
poets and literary men delighted to extol. But 
the trades and handicrafts were looked down on. Wholesale com- 
merce was thought to be respectable, for there was considerable 
money in it, although retail trade was lightly esteemed. Money 
lenders had a large income, but their business was unsavory. 
" Lending money at interest has various advantages, but it 
is not honorable," was the general opinion. Yet these men 
played an important part in the building up of Rome. Politics 
furnished quite a field for one's exertions. Many thought 
it worth their while to fit themselves for public life, and in 
various capacities rendered their country much service and 
gained for themselves either the esteem or the deadly hatred of 
their fellow-citizens. Yet barriers were here interposed, by 
provisions which made the curule aedileship the stepping-stone 
to higher offices, and then, by making it the aedile's duty to 
give magnificent games at his own expense, shut out from 
political advancement all who were not of great wealth. 
Whereas, in the early state, idleness had been the exception, in 
the later republic it became the rule. And unfortunately, 
while the men of that day did not feel disposed to work, to beg 
they were by no means ashamed. Such institutions as the 
later clientage, the sportula, the captatores, the Leges Frumen- 
tarii, show plainly their servility. In the last days of the 

6 



82 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

republic, the honorable pursuits may be summed up in these : 
to enjoy one's self, to live upon the bounty of some friend 
or patron, to receive the income from one's landed estates or to 
superintend them in person, to be busy in intellectual pursuits, 
to invest one's money in trading and in the provinces, and, 
perhaps, to dabble in politics, although this last was dangerous. 
In all these, excepting politics and intellectual pursuits, it 
is apparent that life lacked any deep and serious purpose. And 
if, as to these two, we recall that politics was very largely a 
game of self-interest, and that the great mass of literary 
activity was for the sake of applause, it is not difficult to see the 
correspondence of the occupations of this time to an ideal of 
selfish gratification and display. 

Looking out from Rome in these times we see a deplorable 
condition of things. The city ideal of personal 
condition of pleasure had worked great harm outside, as well 

Things in Italy as w ithin, her walls. The small farmers of the 

Italian plains had given up their plots of 
ground, because there was no encouragement to them to con- 
tinue. Wheat could be bought in Rome, thanks to the corn 
laws, cheaper than they could raise it. In economic as well as 
other lines, everything was sacrificed to what were thought to 
be the interests of the population of the capital, and for them 
bread never could be too cheap. So the disheartened peasant, 
attracted by stories of the city's life as the moth is by the 
candle's flame, gave up his iewjugera and went to Rome. His 
land was incorporated in the estate of some wealthy land-owner, 
and the work on it was done by slaves. The rustic, who is 
ever the hope of the state, now lived on its bounty, instead 
of contributing to its maintenance ; and with the servility 
which he soon acquired by imitation, and with the constant ex- 
citements provided for the city populace, his manhood presently 
disappeared. Once he had stood distinct as a unit, he and all 
his fellows, each a pillar under Rome, but now his identity was 
lost in the heterogeneous mass, the city rabble. And the 
change which had come about in his condition corresponded 
again to the growing ideal of individual gratification and of 
personal enjoyment. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 83 

CASUALITY. COMMON OCCUPATIONS 

1 War, ....... Corresponds to ideal of devotion to 

the state. 
Agriculture, ...... To same, supporting its life and 

that of the family. 
\c Army for conquest, phalanx to legion, Due to ideal of aggrandizement. 

war a business, .... 

1 and 2 New strategics, .... To same, and ideal of gain. 

Agriculture, and wholesale, rather than To ideal of honorable living. 

retail, commerce, .... 

Outcry against money-lenders, . . To same, and citizen ideal. 

2 Devotion to general, .... To ideal of personal gain and 

aggrandizement. 

Condition of politics as business, . . To ideal of family and self- ag- 
grandizement. 

Rustic in city rabble, .... To ideal of gratification on part of 

city ; of gain on his own. 

2 and 3 Superintendence of estate, invest- To ideal of enjoyment and display. 

ment, politics, intellectual pursuits, 

3 Idleness, ...... To ideal of enjoyment. 

Ill — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING 
TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 

So much for the habits of common life according to which 
man obtains a livelihood, and subjugates and uses for his 
advantage the forces and phenomena of material nature, the 
ways in which he spends his time. We now turn to what are 
called more distinctly the social institutions. And first is that 
which is the foundation of social life, the family. 

In early Rome, family life not only was, but was considered 
to be, of the highest importance. The Gens 
was the great power in society. In origin it The F amii y — 
was religious, an organization for the worship of The Earl y Gens 
tutelary deities, the gods of the hearth. But 
when the tribes arose, and more particularly when they were 
united, this character was lost, and the curiae became chiefly 
political. In the later days, the Name was highly valued ; the 
nobility cared a great deal for the reputation of the family in 
war, and strove to maintain its peculiar virtue everywhere; but 
the family was not the political unit. 

From the primitive character of the Gens, we may judge the 
nature of marriage itself. While its essence lay 
simply in the consent of the two parties, it was Marriage 

the accomplishment of civil and religious obliga- 
tions ; and by eating together the cake, the newly-wedded pair 
founded a fresh hearth in the Gens and a new family in the 
state. Naturally, with these obligations, celibacy was thought 



84 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

almost a crime. Divorce was carefully guarded, and was not 
allowed, except for reason, and then only after careful consulta- 
tion of the Gens. Very stringent regulations were laid down 
in the XII Tables, and the divorce of Ruga, so late as 283, was 
the occasion of a great outcry. 

As the marriage ceremony was religious, legal marriage was 
limited to those who were of Roman birth, i. e., were members 
of some family. Others might live together, but their marriage 
was not recognized by the state, because they could not take 
part in the necessary religious rites. 

In the early family, the life seems to have been very much 
like that of what we to-day call a home. It may 
Home Life have been a little austere, but that was in the 

Roman blood. Marriages were happy and per- 
manent, exposure of infants was not common and was only for 
what was considered good reason, and personally, the men and 
women lived lives of purity. The father had peculiar power 
over all the members of the family. Everything was his by 
right of manus ; and it was by virtue of this right, and his posi- 
tion as a householder, that he had his separate citizenship. 
However, in the home, there seems to have been a feeling of 
equality ; women ate with men and were present at their ban- 
quets. Although the father was the head of the family, and 
children and wife both belonged to him, yet the wife, howbeit 
lacking in authority, was his equal in dignity. As he had to do 
with the estate and with war, so she was in charge of the home 
and attended to all its belongings ; he had his servants and she 
her maidens. And while, no doubt, the patria potestas was 
freely exercised in this early period, the life of the home seems, 
on the whole, to have been a life of happiness. Notwithstand- 
ing under the form of marriage by manus the wife was only a 
thing conveyed to her husband, she was highly reverenced. It 
was she who made the house what it was, and at her death the 
husband ceased to be a priest. It may also be noted that 
women were recognized as a part of the state, and could bear 
witness in the courts, which, however, they rarely did. 

All this was in accord with the early ideal of purity and 
morality, of national feeling, and paternal author- 
changes in Marriage ity. But the workings of a new ideal, develop- 
ments which did not here appear, or which, 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 85 

because of the scarcity of their appearance, pass unnoticed, made 
themselves manifest in the later republic. The first exceptions 
to the old rule of living were met with severity and great outcry, 
but such was not for long the case. The father's power remained 
as absolute as ever in the family. But the religious ceremony 
of marriage was gradually exchanged for the civil coemptio, and 
this in turn gave way to usus, by which the husband had legal 
authority over the wife only after a year of married life, without 
the passage of a trinoctium during which she had been absent 
from his house. Her property did not come with her to her 
husband, but, she retained both it and her position in her own 
family. Marriage by manus was relegated to the priests, for 
whom alone, because of their office, it was a matter of necessity. 
Such a movement, of course, seriously impaired the stability of 
the family. Following the changing ideal, the tendency had 
been toward greater and greater laxity, and the price of this de- 
velopment was the permanence (and we may add, the happiness) 
of the family relation. The full fruit was borne in the evil 
society of the later republic and the early empire. The pro- 
vision of trinoctium was then taken as a means of breaking 
troublesome bonds. Men, on the other hand, simply dismissed 
their wives without ceremony. The form of usus allowed man 
and woman to live together for a year without the woman's com- 
ing into the man's power ; and at any time she could leave him, 
and it would have been nothing. And this gives, not the ex- 
treme possibilities of the law, but what was actually going on 
every day. 

In another way of looking at this general matter, we may call 
it the emancipation of woman. 1 By the old law, 
a married woman was subject to her husband, or, the Emancipa- 
She had no property of her own. The unmarried tion of Woman 
woman was subject to her nearest male agnatus, 
and had no right of management of her own property. But by 
various means, by mock marriages and by making use of the 
custom of trinoctium, women tried to get property into their own 
hands. Now by the Roman theory, only men were Roman citi- 
zens ; consequently they alone should control the property. But 
so greatly had things changed from this, that in 169 it was 
felt necessary to exclude women from testamentary inheritance. 



1 So Mommsen, ibid., ii : 476. 



86 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

As time went on family jurisdiction over women became more 
and more antiquated. Their ideal, as that of the men, was gain 
and personal pleasure, and on account of the severity of their pre- 
vious conditions, they seem to have been carried headlong to the 
other extreme. 

Of the condition of things in Rome of the last century, in 

matters pertaining to the family, we do not need 

Morality of the t0 sa y muc h here ; for the state of affairs is too 

Last Century 111 

before Christ largely a matter of common knowledge to re- 

quire a great deal of explanation. We get a hint 
of the situation from the odes of the poet Horace, and among 
writers of his day, he was above the average in purity. Some 
of his works are in their whole body unreadable ; and it is only 
in excerpted editions that the works of many other Latin authors 
can be placed in the hands of readers to-day. The censors tried 
to stop this tendency, but were unable. Not alone as it ap- 
peared in the breaking up of family ties, but in all the life of 
Rome, the deadly virus was working. Augustus thought by 
his supreme power to check the alarming development. He 
promised rewards for the rearing of children, and made penalties 
for celibacy. But the bachelors perferred the flattery and adula- 
tion of their clients and of the captators ; for they knew that 
if they should marry, these attentions would be no longer theirs. 
Horace at times sees and laments these things, and he sings 
warningly, " Our fathers were not as their fathers, nor are we as 
they, and our children shall be worse than ourselves." ' But he re- 
ceived no more attention. The vices of Rome and the awful wick- 
edness, not only of her nobility but of her whole population, 
demand our assent to the melancholy statement, " Rome fell 
because she had lost the old Aryan idea of the family." 2 A 
different, a new ideal was, as we have seen, the actuating idea 
of Roman society. 

CAUSALITY. THE FAMILY 

1 Ceremony of /nanus, obligation and Correspond to ideal of citizen as mem- 
permanence of marriage, . . ber of family. 
Woman's dignity, .... To place of family in ideal of state. 

Also to ideal of virtuous living. 
P atria potestas, .... To ideal of citizen as head of family. 



1 Horace : Odes, Book iii ; ode 6. 
» Timing: The Family. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



87 



lc Coemptio, ..... Due to ideal of state aggrandizement 

which turned inward as well as out- 
ward. To incipient decay of ideal 
of virtuous living(?). 
Emancipation of woman, . . To growing ideal of personal gain and 

individual enjoyment. 
Woman remaining a member of her Due to ideal of family and personal 

own family, .... aggrandizement. 

Valuing and maintenance of Name, Due to same. 

2 and 3 Usus, trinoctium, laxity grow- Due to gradually growing ideal of en- 
ing, ..... joyment and personal gratification. 

Celibates (captators et a/.), . . Due to same, with something of display. 

Immoral literature, . . . Due to ideal of personal, sensual grati- 

fication and pleasure. 

The beginnings of Rome we find, however, not in the family, 
but in the institutions of the state. To be sure, 
there is about the whole story the glamour and The state 

unreality of myth ; yet whether we consider it 
as essentially true, or as framed in after years to account for 
certain necessary and probable events, the effect on our consid- 
erations will be little. In either case, it exhibits the prevailing 
temper of the early Romans. 

Here are the bare facts. The first care of the infant state 
was for its political institutions ; of these the 
projector was Romulus. Numa followed with The Kingdom 

the institutions of religion. Tullus Hostilius 
brought the Albans to Rome, the origin of the plebeian order, 
so in a sense founding the great social institution. And Ancus 
Marcius, devising the fetiales, laid down the primitive regula- 
tions of inter-tribal, or inter-national, relations. The affairs of 
the next reign bear more the appearance of historic truth. Tar- 
quinius Priscus, perhaps the representative of an Etruscan con- 
quest, led in great material progress, which he very likely copied 
from the surrounding nations. Servius Tullius gave to Rome a 
new military organization, that of the centuries, on the basis of 
property. He also divided all the people without respect to 
rank or property into local tribes, whose duties were to fix prop- 
erty taxes and to provide for military levies. Tarquinius Super- 
bus made himself odious to the Roman people, and is chiefly 
noted for his expulsion ; upon which event, the curies selected 
two praetors from among their number to be the twin executives 
of Rome. 



88 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

We may notice, in the first place, about this history, that 
the early kings held office, not by any inherent 
seat of Authority right, but by the gift of the people. Romulus 
was simply a superior member of the Ramnes 
(and before that, the leader of a robber band); and Numa was put 
forward to stand for the Tities. On the contrary, the last three 
kings seem to have assumed a right to themselves. According 
to the story, the elder Tarquin, as regent, usurped the power of 
the two sons of Ancus Marcius. Upon the assassination of 
Tarquin by the sons of Ancus, Servius Tullius, through the stra- 
tagem of Tanaquil, was proclaimed king. And the haughty 
Tarquin gained his place by the crime of his brother's wife. 

The expulsion of the kings, therefore, was not of the nature 
of a primary revolution. The guilty deed of Sextus was but 
the occasion for the assertion by the people of the rights which 
they felt were theirs by inheritance, and which had been held in 
abeyance by the last three kings. By the casting off of the 
yoke of oppression, the power was simply returned to those 
who had given it, by them to be meted out to worthy leaders, 
who by their annual deposition should continually bear wit- 
ness to the popular residence of political authority. 

The division, therefore, of the early history of the Roman 
people at the expulsion of the kings is rather on 
4g4 . e 2 86 C B. a c .'- tne surface. That answers, instead, to the usur- 

True Division pation of the elder Tarquin, and it is eleven years 

after that there appears a real boundary line. 
Populus Romanus meant only those who, being of Roman birth 
or adoption, were numbered in some curia. Outside these, 
there had grown up a large plebeian population about the Alban 
nucleus. Excluded from political privileges and trodden down 
by the patricians, at once their superiors and their heavy credi- 
tors, in 494 they finally made a determined stand upon Mons 
Sacer. In vain did the patricians' representatives try to per- 
suade them to return to the city. They would not do so, until 
their demands were met. And so it came about that all exist- 
ing debts were canceled ; all debtors in bondage were restored 
to freedom ; the plebeians were given two plebeian aediles, and 
were granted two tribunes of the plebs, who should have the 
care of plebeian interests and to whom the plebeians might ap- 
peal from the decision of any magistrate. This marks a dividing 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 89 

line in early Roman history. The common people had become 
sufficiently conscious, not of their ill treatment, but of their 
rights as men, to demand them at the hands of the patricians. 
And this view is further supported by the statement of the his- 
torian that those who retired to the Sacred Mount were orderly 
in their behavior, and were not an unorganized mob, or a band of 
plunderers. 

In 286, the long struggle was finally ended, so far as patrician 
and plebeian contestants were concerned, by the Hortensian 
Law. By this it was enacted that the plebiscites, of themselves 
and without the necessity of any exterior sanction, should be 
binding on all the Ouirites. 

To go over this struggle in detail would be tedious and not 
to our purpose. We may simply call up its main 
points: The Decemvirate in 451, whose ap- Main Facts of the 
pointment was the culmination of a ten years' plebeian struggle 
effort on the part of the plebs ; the second se- 
cession to Mons Sacer, following the matter of Virginia, and the 
subsequent passage of the Valerian and Horatian laws ; the 
secession to the Janiculum in 445, which secured the right of 
inter-marriage of plebeians with patricians ; the Licinian Roga- 
tions in 367, the outcome of another long battle on the part of 
the tribunes ; in 338, the Publillian laws ; in 300, the Lex 
Ogulnia, which gave to the plebeians a place in the religious 
hierarchy ; and in 286, the Lex Hortensia. Soon after the 
Licinian Rogations, there seems to have been a very decided 
movement on the part of the plebs, and many of the offices were 
occupied by them. The complete organization of the army, giv- 
ing to each citizen some place, and the provision by which the 
spoil of battle was equally distributed, afforded them much en- 
couragement and made them more devoted to the state. In the 
later part of this period, the patricians became much reduced in 
numbers and were compelled to seek outside aid. So that the 
division finally was not plebeians against patricians, but the 
popular party, consisting of the main body of the plebs, against 
the patricians and their allies, the lowest freemen, the four city 
tribes. 

It is interesting to note the provisions upon which emphasis 
was placed by their reiteration, in the measures 
passed for the benefit of the plebs. Taking contested Points 
them in the order in which they appeared in 



Q IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

legislation, the right of appeal of every citizen was three times 
affirmed (494, 449 (2) ) ; three laws related to indebtedness 
(494, 367, 323), the last abolishing imprisonment for debt; quite 
a number, at least four (486, 450, 392, 367), dealt with agrarian 
matters ; five had to do with the decrees of the Comitia Tributa 
(449 (2), 339, 286 (2) ), the control of the senate and the curies 
being by the last forever done away ; three (445, 367, 300), con- 
cerned the religious rights of the plebs. 

Our most important question, however, is as to the temper of 
this political period. It is a feature, as we might 
Temper of the expect from the national character of the ideal, 

Pe °p ]e that the bone of contention was the state. Each 

man fought and worked for citizenship and for a 
share in the government, whether large, as that of the patricians, 
or small, as that sought by the plebeians. It was a period of 
activity and great originality in the field of politics. Rome was 
altogether a "live" community. It is worth noting, too, that 
although the plebs were fighting for their rights, and 
although each law which came into being was the idea or the 
compulsory gift of the patricians, every one was ready for 
patriotic endeavor. Indeed, it was a common ruse of the nobil- 
ity to lead out the legions to war, with or without pretext, in 
order to overcome the growing discontent. 

There is one political custom of this period which seems to 
show us the Republic herself sowing the seeds of 
unfavorable signs h er future troubles, in the cultivation of a dan- 
gerous ideal. Before the annual elections, each 
citizen who sought office was compelled to candidate. Assum- 
ing the white toga, he must enter the Forum, and there solicit 
the votes of his fellow-citizens by exhibiting his honorable scars 
and by telling what he would accomplish if elected. Turbulent 
as Roman elections usually were, the cultivation of this self- 
seeking spirit brooked for her things far worse than the tumult 
of her citizens. Sometime, what was now only the expression 
of popular feeling would be organized to forward the plans of 
personal ambition. 

Over the latter part of this epoch, the new aristocracy began 
to form. In its growth it has been compared to that of a crust 
of ice upon the water, increasing slowly but surely in thickness 
and in strength. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS qj 

The dominant cry of the following years was, Rome against 
the world. Externally they formed an age of 
conquest ; internally they were marked by con- The Republic, 
solidation and incipient demoralization, the Party Aristocracy '' 
of Reform, and the beginning of the breaking 
up. The aristocracy, as we have just said, was not destroyed, 
but only re-organized. So early as 310, there was a very sharp 
distinction between curule and non-curule members of the sen- 
ate. To the former alone was the right of debate allowed, 
although the latter sat in large numbers. For some time the 
nobility were a class honorably distinguished, and upheld by 
the high offices ; but gradually, after the second Punic war, 
they declined into "an order of lords, filling up their ranks 
by hereditary succession and exercising collegiate misrule." 
In 190 the senate was, as characterized by Mommsen, "made 
up of coteries of men striving for family aggrandizement." 
But meanwhile, they had not left themselves without support. 
The censorship was, from its very inception, a staff for the 
patricians ; the senate with its curule privileges was another 
prop ; and lastly, the Equites had been converted into an aristo- 
cratic corps, throwing to the winds the doctrine of military 
equality, and making an arm of the service which, from the 
military point of view, was not altogether strong, but affording 
much strength to the aristocratic position by its control of the 
Comitia Centuriata. In illustration of the power of the Comitia, 
it is probably true that Manius Curius, elected in 274, was the 
last consul who did not belong to the social aristocracy. Never- 
theless, the supremacy on the part of the nobility was largely a 
piece of assumption. There is no doubt that the real power 
was in the hands of the people, if they had only cared or dared 
to use it. But so much inured were they to the old customs 
that they discouraged radical changes. They even, for instance, 
refused to accept a bill which transferred the election of pontiffs 
from the curies to the tribes. 

Some censors, however, did not hesitate to exercise their 
official authority with rigor, when there was 
occasion for it. During the first Punic war Party of Reform 
(262-240), thirteen senators and forty knights 



1 The date 286 is of course not absolute. It only seems, on the whole, to be the most suitable. 
So 146 is entirely arbitrary ; but we justify it by the simultaneous conquest of Carthage and Greece. 



9 2 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



were degraded because of their lukewarmness in the service of 
the republic. 234 and 149, the limits of the life of the elder 
Cato, may be taken as the dates of the Reform Party, of which 
he was the great leader. It represents the opposition of the 
middle class of Rome, her back-bone, to the " Hellenic-cosmo- 
polite nobility." When Cato presented himself as a candidate 
for the censorship, it was with the avowed purpose of purifying 
the senate and the nobility. To this service he was chosen by 
the votes of the Reform Party ; and their persistence is shown 
by the fact that, though Cato was forty several times accused by 
the nobility, he was each time acquitted by the votes of these 
supporters. 

It is natural that the number of police regulations and of 
sumptuary laws at this time should be unusual. For a while 
they undoubtedly checked the political and moral decay. But 
they lacked permanent effect, because their promoters acted on 
the defensive rather than the offensive, and were apparently 
without a definite plan or a thorough understanding of the 
trouble. The party was wealthy in good citizens but it had no 
great statesmen. 

In the latter part of this period, the burden of the Roman 

wars was thrown increasingly on the Latin and 

Loss of unity Italian allies. The unity on the basis of repub- 

and of Politi- J L 

cai Honesty lican freedom which marked the short epoch of 

the Samnite wars was breaking up before the en- 
croachments of the senate. The city rabble and their accordant 
demagogues were a growing political force. Of the bright days 
of Rome, Polybius said that " nothing is held more base (by her 
citizens) than to be corrupted by gifts, or to covet an increase of 
wealth by means that are unjust." In 170, she had an honora- 
ble reputation for fair dealing and for honesty in the administra- 
tion of her dependencies : but this did not long continue. And 
the same change was soon marked at home as well. 

It would not be correct to think that we have now come to 

the era of Rome's degradation ; we have merely 

^6-2 'b e £ u _^ hc * approached its brink. And the period down to 

character of the foundation of the empire only finds it well 

Government , , ,. , , ,-,,, . , 

established. 1 here was an increasing tendency 
not to have any interest in or connection with the affairs of the 
state. The shallows, however, are bad enough. The struggle 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



93 



in these later times was that of power and wealth against the 
people. The history of the government is the history of the 
rise and fall of individuals. As Niebuhr says, "With the elder 
Gracchus, we come to the period where each character presents 
a separate psychological problem." The two Gracchi, Marius 
and Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar, each with more or less 
thought for the welfare of the people, waged or excited civil 
war. The character of the legislation shows that things had 
changed. Leges Frumentarii were common, the expression of 
a most short-sighted policy, but answering, however, to the 
ideal in which personal interests had taken precedence of the 
welfare of Rome. Internally, there was no controlling power in 
the state. Formerly men had been restrained by the personal 
scrutiny of magistrates and of their fellow-citizens, but Rome had 
grown too large for this — "a multitudinous monarch without 
the capacity for vigilance." 

So far as foreign policy was concerned, there was but one ; 
the empire for use rather than for administration. 
There was no idea of provincial representation. Foreign Policy 
Rome simply tried to stretch her city govern- 
ment to fit an empire, and of course she was destined to fail. 
Either the provinces must be brought up to her level, or she 
must sink to theirs ; the latter was what took place. 

In the matter of revenues, all was not true and upright. 
Polybius says that there was " hardly a man of 
means in Rome who had not been concerned, Malfeasance 

as an avowed or silent partner, in the leasing of 
the public revenues." And again, " In general, artifice so much 
prevails that it is now become the chief study of men to deceive 
each other, both in the administration of civil affairs and in the 
conduct of war." ' The condition in the provinces may be judged 
from the conduct of Licinius in Greece, who turned everything 
to his own account, even selling furloughs to the soldiers, and 
from the notable case of Verres. 

Add to this the proscriptions, all too frequent in the later 
days of the republic, the daily uncertainty of pri- 
vate as well as public life and fortune, the fact Further causes 

i i m -i" and Manner of 

that only a few could by any possibility rule, Re-adjustment 
and behind these, the very individual nature of 

1 Polybius: History, Book xiii ; extract i. 



94 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

the ideal, and it is no wonder that the general desire was for 
peace and good government at any cost, and the great fear, that 
of another civil war. Many successes, and particularly that of 
Pompey in quelling the pirates, had strengthened the popular 
confidence in the dictatorship, so that it was gladly accorded to 
Caesar, and in turn to Octavian, as a secure form of public ad- 
ministration. Under this arrangement, government soon 
became more equitable ; centralization and order were substi- 
tuted for anarchy. But at the same time, there was loss of 
liberty. Gradually Augustus drew to himself all the powers of 
the different magistrates. The forms of popular legislation 
ceased to be observed. The emperor formed about himself a 
cabinet. There grew up a new official organization. The im- 
perial government was a unity, but on the basis of servitude ; 
and the authority which had been accorded the popular leaders 
was soon demanded by an emperor. 

By a couple of summaries, we may, perhaps, make more clear 
the parallelism of this development in politics 
summaries of to the development of the moral ideal. The 

Development progress, we should bear in mind, was from a 

strong national morality and pride to a predomi- 
nant desire for individual gratification and power. Originally, 
the ideal Roman was, in a single word, a patriot. By insensible 
degrees, he became the man of family and personal reputation, 
and then the man of pleasure. 

First, as to the ground of political authority : In the senate, 
the basis of membership was, at the beginning, age ; the old 
men were entrusted with the affairs of the state. But as the 
plebeian element grew, this qualification was lost sight of in the 
emphasis placed on noble birth. This by a gradual process 
was superseded by the criterion of necessary wealth, and the 
senatorial rights were tacitly confined to the social aristocracy, 
till finally the name "senator" became a synonym for social 
position and prestige and the senate little more than the crea- 
ture of the emperor. In the comitial organization, the curies 
respected both birth and age. The centuries, to which the 
government was handed over, were based upon wealth, though, 
in their organization, the seniores had a majority over the 
juniores ; and the Equites, who held the preponderance of power, 
came to be, as a class, men of noble blood. In the Comitia 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 95 

Tributa, the source of authority was power. Of course, along 
with these requirements, there was a certain amount of ability 
necessary for leadership. 

Again, according to the main object of government : The 
very early history deals with the framing of political forms ; but 
after that, we find the three branches of government occupied 
somewhat in this way : 





Republic 


Transition 


Empire 
















To 494. 


494-286. 


286-146. 


146-29. 


29— 


Executive, . 


Defence. 


Defence. 


Conquest. 


Conquest and 
civil war. 


Security. 


Judiciary, . 


Justice to 


Justice to 


And also 


To same and 


To all— 




Romans. 


citizens. 


to aliens. 


fluctuating. 


within 
limits. 


Legislative, 


General 


And class 


Class 


Popular desires 


Will of 




welfare. 


interests. 


interests. 


and individual 
will. 


emperor. 



CAUSALITY. 

(Ideals which dominate in later periods 
is difficult to speak exactly regarding causal 

1 Formation of the state ; 

Politically, .... 

Religiously, 



Socially, orders of patricians and 

plebeians, . . . . 

Internationally, . . . . 

Power resident in people, 

Senate and curies by noble birth, 

\b Plebeian struggles, .... 

Devotion to state, . . . 
Struggle on part of patricians, 



New aristocracy, .... 
Control and membership in centuries, 



\c Consolidation, . . . . 

Party of Reform, . . . . 
Social aristocracy, .... 

Growing city rabble and demagogues, 
loss of unity and honesty, 



THE STATE 

are traceable far back; in some cases it 
ity). 

Corresponds to ideal of man as citizen 
(and head of family). 

To ideal of man as head of family, 
what must have been originally a 
family institution being made a part 
of the state. 

Correspond to ideal of citizen as mem- 
ber of a family. 

To ideal of keeping faith(?). 

To ideal of man as citizen. 

To place of family in ideal. 

Due to ideal of man as citizen, working 
in those who were not citizens. 

To patriotic ideal. 

In part, to ideal of man as member of 
family; also same; also ideal of later 
times can be noticed. 

To beginning of ideal of personal 
aggrandizement. 

To ideal of man as citizen; as a mem- 
ber of family; also sign of personal 
aggrandizement. 

Due to ideal of state aggrandizement. 

To same; devotion to state. 

To ideal of honorable living and to 
growing ideal of personal gain. 

To ideal of personal gain and aggran- 
dizement now growing. 



q6 'IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

\c and 2 Senate based on wealth, . To last, and that of honorable living. 
ComitiaTributa; power the power, . To ideal of personal aggrandizement. 

2 Rise and fall of individuals, . . Due to ideal of personal aggrandize- 

ment. 
Rule of few, proscriptions, loss of To ideal of personal gain. 

state vigilance and power, little 

real citizenship, Leges Frumen- 

tarii, empire for use, 
Malfeasance, allowance, of dictator- To same, and growing ideal of personal 

ship, gratification. 

3 Empire, loss of liberty, senate crea- To ideal of personal gratification. 

ture of the emperor, 

In the foundation of religion at Rome, there are three 

points in particular which claim attention. 
Religion- its Religion had its first expression, not in the 

Foundation stirring songs of some gifted Homer, nor in the 

inspired utterances of ascetic prophets, but in 
the national policy of Numa, the king ; religion was introduced 
by a king who was of Sabine, rather than Roman origin ; 
although most closely connected with the state, religion was 
not its basis, but rather was superimposed upon it. 

With the early Romans the state was everything, and so the 

religion was a state religion. During the king- 
its character dom, the king was also the high pontiff of the 

nation. He had as his coadjutors the sacerdotal 
orders of pontiffs and augurs, the former to make sacrifices, and 
the latter to superintend the omens. The gods were thought 
of by the people as the prototypes of human virtues, and as the 
rulers of human affairs, but the emphasis was placed on this 
latter and the former practically disappeared quite early. The 
desire, consequently, was to obtain from these sovereigns of the 
earth advice, and a definite Yes or No, as to the execution and 
the success or failure of the projects of men. From the space 
which was marked off (temphim) for the especial purpose, the 
augur would observe the flight of birds, at the sacrificial altar 
he would examine the entrails of the victim, and from these he 
claimed to be able, by certain secret, but infallible signs, to read 
the answer of the gods. It was but natural, since the gods were 
conceived as omnipotent rulers, that men should seek to gain 
their favor by propitiatory offerings, and this is the distinctive 
character of the gifts of votaries. Whether sacrifice was offered 
or a temple was vowed, each was in return for, or in expectation 
of, an equivalent return from the divinity. The dealings with 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS gy 

the gods were strictly mercantile, and the oath made to them 
was on the same level as that to one's neighbor. The super- 
natural element was present in this religion only in the form of 
superstition ; in general it was cold and prosaic, utterly different 
from the warm anthropomorphism of the Greek mythology, but 
thoroughly agreeing with the Roman sternness and austerity. 

The power of the sacerdotal class, not only the sole interpre- 
ters of the omens, but also the guardians of the 
sacred books, was very great. The whole state power of the 

was practically subject to them. When the Priesthood 

title rex for a political sovereign was forever 
put away, as still retained in rex sacrorum, it was expressive 
of the seat of highest control. Religion was in theory founded 
on and supported by political institutions, but for a long time, as 
a matter of fact, it controlled national affairs. For example, it 
was compulsory upon public officials to consult the auspices be- 
fore attempting any public work. And the priests were able to 
enforce their directions, not only by the weight of religious 
sanction or disapproval, but also by excommunication, both re- 
ligious and political, which it was in their power to proclaim and 
to execute. Again, by the custom of dies fasti and. nefasti, they 
controlled the legal affairs of all individuals. On one of the 
holy days, there could be no litigation or meeting of the 
Comitia. And since many of the dates were uncertain, and 
they were never published in advance, no one could tell, till he 
came to the city, what the chances for action that day would 
be. 

The great power thus placed in the hands of a few, by 
the very fact of its greatness, brought with it 
great temptations. The religion, limited in its corruption for 
range to those who could unite in the worship of Political Purposes 
some curia, was essentially a patrician institu- 
tion, and when the struggle had commenced between the 
orders, the nobility did not hesitate to use it for their own ends. 
In not a long time, the influence of religion — which, we should 
bear in mind, rested on the authority of human laws and the effi- 
cacy of human institutions — was used, not to make men better, 
however much (or little) that may have been its object previously, 
but to render them more powerful. We may judge, then, that 
the Lex Ogulnia, by which one-half the pontiffs and augurs 

7 



og IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

were secured to the plebeians, was an enactment of no little im- 
portance. 

But we must also notice that from this time the power of 
the priesthood began to wane. Even much as 
its Decay they valued the sacerdotal offices, the plebs 

cared more to be tribunes than to be pontiffs, 
for the Roman spirit was first civil and military and then re- 
ligious. On the other hand, the lack of any object for which 
they might exercise religious control, and the absence of un- 
bridled sway in religious affairs, caused the patricians to become 
lukewarm and indifferent. So when the plebs became priests, 
the power of the priesthood began to grow less ; the office had 
been widened only to work its ultimate destruction. 

What was true in the priestly orders was still more the case 
in the national religious life (if we may use such an expression). 
Even between the Punic wars, the state religion was tottering, 
and when Ennius declared about 200 B. C, " No doubt, I believe 
the gods exist, but they scarcely trouble themselves about the 
world," we are told by Cicero that many applauded. 1 In the 
time of Cato, the images of the gods were used by the wealthy 
as articles of furniture, as statuary for the adornment of their 
houses. 

But the development which seems from this aspect only the 

loss of the old religion, in another embodies the 

introduction of extension of religious sentiment. Among other 

Oriental Religions •*■%■% i r i 

— By the state things, it had been the business 01 the priests to 
see to it, not only that aliens were excluded from 
Roman worship, but that Romans did not worship foreign 
deities, i. e., those not permitted by law. So, when we see a 
temple reared to Castor and Pollux, it is by the state, for aid 
given the Roman arms in the battle of Lake Regillus ; Apollo 
is adopted by the state during the Decemvirate ; in 264, the wor 
ship of Cybele is introduced, likewise by the state ; and later, it 
is the state that sends an expedition to import the god 
Aesculapius. It may be noted in passing, that each of these 
foreign worships was brought in under the pressure of excep- 
tional circumstances (not, we should think, to create priesthoods 
for the plebeians). 2 But the significant thing is, that these 



1 Cicero : De Divinitate, ii : 50. 

a As Guhl and Koner : The Life of the Greeks and Romans, p. 304. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS qq 

alien deities were admitted by the state as such, and that their 
admission was dependent, ultimately, upon the action of the 
state. 

In 1 86, the discovery of the Bacchanalian revels shocked the 
better moral sense of the community. But from the religious 
point of view, the offence was quite as serious, 
for the worship of Bacchus had been introduced By individuals 
without the consent or approval of the state. 
The reappearance of these orgies in 180, in spite of the severe 
punishment meted out only six years before to so great a num- 
ber as 7,000 guilty persons, shows that neither in its immorality 
nor in its irreligion was it a spasmodic outburst. It, and the 
previous introductions, perhaps more especially that of the wor- 
ship of Cybele, were symptoms in religion of the growth of an 
individualistic ideal, now fast approaching the point where it 
would be beyond restraint. 

These newly introduced Oriental religions possessed a 
warmth which was at the opposite extreme from 
early Roman institutions. They appealed par- Their power 

ticularly to the passions, and it was in the glori- 
fication of these that the personal ideal found its field. The 
natural evolution here brought about skepticism among think- 
ing men, and turned them either, in despair, into the popular cur- 
rent, or toward Oriental mysticism, or left them wandering in 
the obscure by-ways of Stoic casuistry. 

We find the rites of the old religion observed far into the 
empire. But, fortunately or unfortunately, re- 
ligion and religious observances are two differ- use of the 
ent things. Rome required the gods for the 01d Rsli ^ ion 
purposes of the state, long after men had ceased 
to believe in them. The position taken by her statesmen was 
that religion was a valuable instrument of government, 
especially among the lower classes. Polybius gives this as the 
common view, in his opinion. Cicero and Varro thought re- 
ligious restraints essential to the public welfare and safety. 
And public policy decreed that in the government of the 
provinces, the religions of the various peoples should not be 
molested. " Cujus regio, ejus religio" 

It may be an occasion for suprise, that Stoicism did not ex- 

LofC 



IG IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

ert a stronger influence among the Romans in 
influence of general. With some, it was a powerful factor ; 

stoicism Cato and Cicero are only two examples, among 

a great number. But it would seem that its 
effect upon the large majority was not so much positive, furnish- 
ing them with a new belief, as it was reactionary, driving them 
further away from the old divinities. Roman religion, as we 
have already noted, offered but very slight nourishment for the 
religious emotions. There was, and had been — for the Romans 
were men — a gradually growing, and now most intense desire 
for a positive religious belief. Stoicism with its cold intellectu- 
ality and its dry dialectic was not suited at all to quench this 
thirst. Instead, it only made its assuaging the more imperative. 
A concurrence of political and commercial conditions opened 
the way in congenial Oriental directions, and there the thirsting 
religious nature, in one cup and another which it quaffed to the 
dregs, caught at any rate the flavor of that nectar which it was 
so fervidly seeking. 

CAUSALITY. RELIGION 

(Ideal runs back further here ; seems to make itself manifest most easily in 
religion, and yet to linger there as well.) 

i First expression in political policy, Corresponding to ideal of man as cit- 

superimposed on state, . . izen and to place of state in ideal. 

King was pontifex, new divinities To ideal of keeping faith, from idea of 

introduced by state, vows, . gods as great men. 

lb Patrician priesthood, . . . Due to ideal of man as member of 

family. 
Corruption for political purposes, . To ideal, now manifested among patri- 
cians, of family aggrandizement. 
Lex Ogulnia, ..... To ideal of personal gain ; also devo- 
tion to the state in plebs. 
lc Decay of priesthood, . . . Due to ideal of family and personal 

aggrandizement. 
Indifference to religion, . . . To ideal of personal gain. 

Introduction of Oriental religions To ideal of personal gain ; and sensual 

by individuals, .... gratification. 

Roman religion an instrument of To ideal of state, and later of family 
government among lower classes, and personal aggrandizement. 

2 Strength of Oriental religions, . To ideal of sensual gratification and 

Lack of influence of Stoicism to the same. of pleasure. 

In noting the development of society itself, we look, first, 
at social divisions. There were three classes in 
society— classes early Rome, patricians and clients, who were 
freemen, and slaves. Clients were either 
aliens, who were regarded only for their occupations, or ple- 
beians. The distinction between these latter and the patricians 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS I0 I 

we have already viewed in its political aspect. It was even 
more harsh from the point of view of social customs. The 
patricians based their superiority on birth, which secured to 
them all their rights. Plebeians, if admitted by adoption to any 
curia, obtained this only as a privilege. They were essentially 
conquered men. They had no rights. Patricians exacted from 
them services in war, submission in peace, and bondage in their 
poverty. And not only were they a subject class ; they were a 
separate caste, worshiping by different religious rites, and 
without the privilege of intermarriage with their superiors, in- 
deed, without the legal ability of contracting formal marriage all. 
If any further sign of this class difference is needed, we find it 
in the separate places in which public meetings were held. The 
patricians assembled in the Comitium, with its stately buildings 
and majestic associations, the plebeians in the Forum, with its 
noise and rush of busy trade. 

As the years passed by, there was a marked degeneration in 
the system of clientage. Disappearing with the 
decay of the old patricians and the increasing change in 

rights of the plebs, the relation was afterward clientage 

resurrected on a new basis. The old depend- 
ency was widened, till the clientage of one man included a 
whole town, and in the later times, the relation subsisted be- 
tween senators and provincial cities, that is, the senators repre- 
sented them at Rome. Meantime a new clientage sprang up 
at Rome. In it the clients lacked not only rank but wealth. 
They hung upon their patrons even for their daily bread, and 
saw nothing disgraceful in their pursuit. On the other hand, 
their patrons were equally delighted by their presence ; and 
they did not feed the crowd without getting something in 
return. The larger the retinue of clients that escorted one to 
the Forum in the morning, the greater man was he. 

We do not find the aristocratic distinction wiped out at any 
time ; it is characteristic of Roman history. 
But we do find its basis altering. In the early Later society — 
times, the ground of nobility was birth. But as Basis of Nobility 
we read along, about 275 we are conscious of a 
change. The old patricians were soon so scant in numbers 
that not they, but the better class of plebeians formed the nobility; 



I02 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

and from this there soon developed the social aristocracy, based 
on wealth and political standing. There was a differentiation, 
too, in the kinds of greatness, and moneyed superiority was 
quite as decided as political or military. 

In the early days, all had belonged, in a sense, to the middle 

class. But in later times, we have, on the one 
The Rabble hand, the optimates with their immense fortunes, 

and on the other, the city rabble ; there was no 
middle class. An almost incredible number were fed at the 
public expense. In the year 70 B.C., it was one-third of the 
whole population. 1 Caesar found 320,000, three-fourths of the 
people, on the rolls of public succor, and limited the number to 
150,000, while Augustus is said to have reduced the paupers to 
200,000. The saddest thing about this class division is, not 
simply that there were so many beggars and hangers-on, and 
that their condition was what it was, but that the rich were 
content that it should be so ; they would do nothing to keep 
the lower classes from sure ruin. Social distinctions, as well as 
those other institutions which we have traced, followed the rud- 
der of desire for personal power and enjoyment. 

CAUSALITY. CLASSES 

1 Patricians and clients, . . . Corresponds to ideal of citizen as mem- 

ber (head) of family. 
\b Different places of meeting of patri- Due to same — essentialness of family 
cians and plebeians, . . . ties to ideal of full citizenship. 

Only middle class, .... To ideal of citizenship still continuing. 

\c Provincial clientage, . . . To ideal of personal aggrandizement. 

2 Social aristocracy, .... To ideal of family and personal ag- 

grandizement. 
Moneyed superiority, . . . To ideal of personal aggrandizement. 

2 and 3 Optimates and city rabble ; no To ideal of personal gain and pleasure, 
middle class, ..... 

The same ideal appears in the facts of slavery. On the face of 
things, the greatest development at Rome was in 
slavery — Number the number of slaves. In the early days, slaves 
of slaves were few, for the captives taken in war were 

not many, and the only other ways of increase 
were the rearing of slave children and the enslaving of insolvent 
creditors — only aliens or plebeians, however, for no Roman citi- 
zen might serve another. The foreign conquests were the oc- 

1 Brace : Gesta Christi, pp. 97, 98, 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



103 



casion of a large increase in the number of captives. From all 
over the world they poured into Rome, and were sold at prices 
cheap enough for anyone. So it came about that the duties of 
the house and the estate were gradually given over to slaves ; 
each little office had its bearer. From the servant who cleaned 
the marbles to the cook and the nomenclator, they were a great 
army in the houses of the aristocracy. So large was the num- 
ber of slaves in Rome, that, when a special dress for them was 
proposed in the Senate, the project was finally dropped for fear 
of an uprising, should they learn their numbers. 

In the early days, the slave was to some extent a member of 
the family. He ate his meals at the family 
table ; he was somewhat acquainted with his condition 

master. But increasing numbers made this im- 
possible. Instead of the family meal, each slave received a 
peculimn, on which he might live and save what he could. He 
saw his master when he was purchased in the slave market ; 
but he rarely came in contact with him, unless he held a re- 
sponsible position in the household. This increase in numbers, 
and the accompanying separation from the family, fostered the 
idea that a slave was merely a thing, and so led to harsh and 
cruel treatment. In early Rome the lot of the slave had been 
tolerable, but the Servile Wars and the revolt of Spartacus 
show that it was not so in the later days. It was a law of the 
XII Tables that the plough, the beasts of burden, and the 
slaves should not work on holidays, of which there were about 
forty-five in the year. But Cato advised that slaves be, on those 
days, set at kinds of work which were not expressly for- 
bidden, while the plough and the oxen rested; for "a slave 
must either work or sleep." Add to this the fearful punish- 
ments (to the cruelty of which masters were singularly impene- 
trable) and the tortures which were inflicted for trivial mishaps, 
e. g., the case of the slave whom Pollio ordered thrown to the 
lampreys, and it is little wonder that a proverb ran, " So many 
slaves, so many foes." 

Again, if we may judge at all by general conditions, the 
slaves were, in the early times, of good stock and 
of some character. But the importations of the character 

Eastern conquests were steeped in Oriental 
vices. In the time of Caesar the whole slave class was thoroughly 



io4 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



demoralized and degraded. And, most unfortunately, by reason 
of this very fact, they were the more able to furnish their mas- 
ters, in many an instance, with such amusements as they most 
desired. 

CAUSALITY. SLAVERY 

i Only captives, slave children, and Corresponding to patriotic ideal, 
alien or pleb debtors, 
Place for slave in family, . . To ideal of man which, while denying 

slaves certain privileges, still saw in 
them the remainder of manhood. 
Largely circumstances. 

Due to ideal of state aggrandizement. 

To ideal of honorable living and per- 
sonal aggrandizement. 

Due to ideal of personal aggrandize- 
ment, as well as numbers. 

To ideal of personal gain and display. 

To ideal of personal pleasure, selfish 
gratification. 

To ideal enjoyment and luxury. 



ic and 2 Importation of slaves, 
Increase in numbers, 

Slave a thing, 

'i and 3 Immense number, 
Harsh and cruel treatment, 

Estate cared for by slaves, 



character, . 



Acceptability of slaves of very low To ideal of selfish and sensual gratifica- 



tion. 



If it is true that in their amusements people act more freely 
and unguardedly than at other times, then in 
Amusements- their recreations we should see a most close 
Early correspondence to the development of the ideal. 

For the early Romans we may let Horace 
speak. " The husbandmen of early times, robust and 
easily contented, recreated themselves, when the harvest was 
gathered by feasts. With their slaves, children, and wives, 
they offered a hog to the earth, milk to Silvanus, and flowers 
and wine to the genius of the hearth." Such were the rural 
pleasures of these early men. King Tarquin the Elder erected 
for them a circus, and instituted athletic games. Music re- 
ceived but little attention ; for highly as it was esteemed and 
earnestly as it was cultivated in later Rome, in these days musi- 
cal ability, or any proficiency in music, was thought effeminate 
and degrading. And as for poetry, the Romans had no genius 
for that. In general, the probabilities would indicate for these 
games a display of strength and brute force, rather than of 
grace or of distinctive skill. The object, as in all amusements 
of Rome, early or late, was to entertain, not to instruct or 
elevate. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS IC >5 

The innovation which worked woe for the circus was the 
gladiator. First seen in funeral games, he 
caught the popular fancy, and from that time he introduction of 
grew in popular favor. Different theories have the Gladiator 
been put forward to account for his introduc- 
tion, and each of them accords with some characteristic of the 
ideal. For instance, man is in relation with the unknown on 
the basis of "for value received"; so the combatants were an 
offering to the Manes, who, by common belief, loved blood. 
Again, as the ideal called for activity and effort, men were not 
satisfied with representations, but wanted the real thing. So 
the drama had no hold on Rome. Comedy could endure, if it 
were realistic and sensual enough ; but tragedy, only on the 
arena, where the bitter struggle for life or death was not painted 
but lived. 

The desire for excitement, spurred on by almost daily exhi- 
bitions, at length demanded a stronger intoxi- 
cant, that the ideal of personal enjoyment might Later shows 
find satisfaction. The beasts appeared, fighting 
with one another, at first ; but next, they were used to put an 
end to the lives of public offenders, or the gladiators were 
matched against them. In the early days of the empire, " To 
the beasts ! To the beasts ! " was a popular cry, and it foretold 
the death of many a faithful believer. This greed for pleasure 
and excitement, which was more fully gratified if there were the 
added charm of novelty, did not stop at cruelty of any degree. 
Scenes too horrible to relate were enacted in the circus. By 
the command of one emperor, human torches served to light 
his pleasure gardens. Another ordered two fully-equipped 
armies to take ship in the harbor, and there, encountering each 
other, to fight not a sham but a real battle, for the amuse- 
ment of the populace. The great desire of this rabble 
was for bread and shows, nor did they blush at any 
immorality ; in fact, this gave zest to all amusements, and espe- 
cially to the presentations of the stage. Of Cato, it is related 
that, when he was censor, and this was previous to 200 B. C, 
he left the theater before the dancing girls appeared, in order 
that he might not be compelled to exercise his office, to the 
restraining of the enjoyment of the people. But someone has 
called him an "animated anachronism;" evidently he was in 
some things. 



I06 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

Two common forms of amusement were the Fescennine 
verses and the Atellane farces. Of the first 
Fescennine Horace goes on from the quotation we have just 

Ateiiane Farces made to say, " The fescennine license, spring- 
ing from these festivals, poured out its rustic 
sarcasms in dialogue. At first it was only gay pastime, but this 
jesting ended by becoming spiteful, and assailing the most hon- 
orable families. Those whom this cruel tooth had wounded 
obtained the passage of a law which forbade, on pain of chas- 
tisement, any personal attack. The custom was changed for fear 
of the rod." Changed in expression, but not in nature. For 
scurrilous and low verses were what the mob, in after years, 
hugely enjoyed. 

The Atellane farces were introduced as a sort of religious 
rite. Participated in only by the sons of patricians, they by this 
fact long retained the odor of respectability, but not the rich 
perfume of their early purity. 

But the mimes were what captured the popular heart in the 
way of theatrical representations. They were 
Mimes of Italic origin. The Greeks, too, derived them 

from Italy ; but with them, dialogue occupied 
the principal place. With the Romans, this was of minor import- 
ance. The main thing was gesture and mimicry, the actors 
relying upon suggestion for their effect on people's minds. At 
first, these exhibitions were probably healthy, and a real amuse- 
ment. But in the later days, they waxed more and more 
wanton, for the desires of the common heart and the strings 
upon which these Alituri played were one. 

Similar is the change that came over Roman feasts. In 
early times, these were not heavy ; and after 
Feasting the repast, the recitations of the guests, inter- 

spersed with singing, formed the evening's 
entertainment. But not so in Cicero's time. The banquets of 
even the pontiffs and the Salii were proverbial for their prodi- 
gality. Feasts were midnight revels, after the Oriental fashion, 
with perhaps an intermission for exercise and bathing ; and by 
the same standard, the chief amusements were voluptuous music 
and the exhibitions of Asiatic dancing girls. So, too, no merry- 
making had formerly been thought complete, in which there was 
no display of patriotic feeling ; but the Roman of the civil wars 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS I0 7 

and the empire let politics and the emperor alone, either by 
choice, because he was self-centered and cared for none of these 
things, or by that worldly prudence which made one wary of 
eaves-dropping informers. Thus did the ideal value before all 
other things the interests of self. 

An incident of the year 167 is illustrative of the popular 
feeling on the matter of amusements. Coming 
at the early part of the foreign growth, it may illustration of the 
also stand for what follows. At some triumphal Popular Feeling 
games of that year, certain Greek flute-players 
appeared ; but it was evident that they did not please the multi- 
tude. Finally they were ordered to throw down their flutes and 
box ; whereat the crowd greatly applauded. 

Dice-throwing, too, had its share of patronage ; but it was 
not limited to an after-dinner amusement. The 
Romans were always gamblers, more or less ; but Gambling 

in the time of Augustus, this had become a 
veritable mania. We consider Monte Carlo a blot on society 
to-day; but how many times worse it would be, if that small 
island were the capital, political and social, of the whole world. 
Yet such was Rome. Everybody gambled ; gambling was one of 
the supports of Roman restaurants. Some of the wagers were 
enormous, and many fortunes were ruined by the habit. Augus- 
tus tried to prohibit games of chance by law; there was a 
special provision to prevent them at meal-times. But he could not 
stop gambling any more than increasing luxury or dying patri- 
otism. They were the work, all of them, of one ideal. And 
the contagion was even spread by succeeding emperors, who 
themselves overran the laws. 

The tendency of the ideal to display is manifest in the 
funeral ceremonies. In the early days, the body 
of the departed was borne out quietly at night Funeral 

and laid to rest, the relatives afterward joining ceremonies 

in a funeral supper. Ostentation in these 
matters was very carefully guarded against in the XII Tables. 
But in the Rome of Caesar, the hour had moved forward into the 
late afternoon. First, the criers loudly proclaimed the funeral f 
and then the procession, issuing from the house, escorted the 
body through the streets to the Forum, and finally to the funeral 
pyre on the Appian Way. The richer the trappings and the 



I0 g IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

grander the display the better. Even mimes were included in 
the procession, not only for the imitation of the actions of the 
deceased and his ancestors, but also for the amusement of the 
crowd. Games were offered to the public in the circus, and 
there were distributions of meat and corn. But the poor were 
borne out silently at night and buried in puticuli in the Campus 
Esquilinus. 

In this consideration of social customs, we may include the 

change in wearing apparel. The national garb 
Disuse of the was the toga, and long was it worn with the 

Tc, g a reverence born of patriotic devotion. The first 

innovations were in the way of more compli- 
cated folding, then colors were used, and finally only the 
imperial edict could keep some from wearing purple of Tyrian 
dye. Others were tired of the garment altogether; it was 
uncomfortable and did not give enough chance for display. 
Augustus had to order the toga worn at court ; in other places 
the pallium took its place. When we remember the position in 
the mind of the early Roman of everything which had to do 
with Rome, we can understand the significance of this action. 
In Rome, as with us now-a-days, lounging was the common 

device by which time was whiled away. The 
Loungers and the difference is that the Romans were professional 
Circus loungers ; after the client had called for his 

sportula, and the captator had waited on the 
wealthy old bachelor, and the rabble has gone for their distribu- 
tion of corn, the whole remainder of the day was spent in 
lounging about. For the loungers, the baths and the circus 
furnished opportunity. The latter, when not in use for the 
games, was the great resort of the common people, and it, 
rather than the Forum, became the place where they expressed 
their will. Likewise, it was characterized by their common 
amusements. It was here, for them, that the beasts devoured 
and the gladiators fought ; and it was here that the caveae below 
the dens of the beasts hid from the light of day their nefarious 
traffic. Attend to Seneca's deliverance upon the times in which 
he lived, and so judge the tendencies of this excitement craving 
people. "Daily," he writes, "the appetite for sin increases, 
the sense of sin diminishes. Casting away all regard for right 
and justice, lust hurries whithersoever it will." (De Ira.) 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 109 

CAUSALITY. AMUSEMENTS AND OTHER CUSTOMS 

Pastoral feasts, displays of strength, Correspond to simple rural idea. 

Toga, ...... To citizen ideal. 

Quiet funeral ceremonies ; true To citizen ideal, and place of family 
mourning, apparently, . . in ideal. 

and 3 Gladiator, .... Due to ideal of display; then of pleas- 
ure. 

Growing cruelty and shamelessness, Due to ideal of selfish, and more par- 
degradation of Fescennine verses ticularly, sensual, gratification, 
and Atellane farces, mimes very 
bad, feasts oriental in settings 
and amusements, circus and its 
customs, ..... 

Nothing of patriotism at feasts, . To ideal of personal gain. 

Ostentatious funerals, . . . To ideal of display. 

Disuse of toga, .... To ideal of personal pleasure. 

Gambling mania, .... To ideal of gain and personal pleasure 

(excitement). 

Loungers, ..... To ideal of enjoyment. 



IV — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING 
TO INDIVIDUAL CULTURE 

Turning to the matter of education, we see there, also, quite 
a development. In ancient Rome the boy was 
in charge of his mother, but had no systematic Education - 

education. In the early republic, however, we Teachers 

find private schools in charge of paid masters, 
for those who are somewhat older. About 225, the boys began 
to be put into the hands of tutors, usually slaves of foreign 
extraction. Cato did not believe in this, and it was esteemed 
worthy of note that he personally attended to the education of 
his son, even himself preparing some of his text-books. Still 
later, the Gracchi were peculiarly fortunate in having a mother 
capable and willing to train them. It was one secret of their 
true nobility. But these were uncommon instances. 

As to subjects, the schoolmaster taught reading, writing, 
and arithmetic (whence his title, calculator or 
notarius). For a long time this formed the subjects 

body of instruction. Cicero, however, had to 
learn the XII Tables. In later times, early training was 
thought to be sort of an amusement. After the three funda- 
mental studies, came the schools of the rhetoricians and gram- 
marians. Here the boys were taught rhetoric and poetry, and 
had a taste of Greek philosophy. And at the age of 15 or 16, 
when the toga virilis was assumed, they were sent to Athens 



HO IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

to be further educated in the schools of the philosophers. If a 
boy remained at home, he was free to attend the lectures of any 
instructor whom he might choose. Philosophy, however, was 
not the only thing that might be learned at Athens ; and for- 
tunate the youth who came back to Rome, even as pure and 
upright, as when he went away. 

There was a general disapproval of sophistic teaching, when 
it made its appearance. The feeling was that 
General it inculcated subversive doubt and taught things 

character which were contrary to the traditions of Rome. 

Yet this teaching was what steadily gained 
ground. The early education was traditional. What the father 
had done the boy was to copy, and the power of the father was 
to be exercised in seeing that he so did. The later education 
was sophistic, and the youth, early turned out to pasture in the 
fields of learning, was allowed to gather what he would. So, 
correspondingly, the object of the early training was practical 
citizenship, including in its scope military exercises. The later 
equipment was for power and skill in managing men, or for re- 
finement and culture. Athletics came in only incidentally, and 
as a matter of enjoyment. And on the whole, it was thought 
preferable to watch skilled wrestlers or contestants in any 
game, rather than to contest one's self. There was a great deal 
in the new education that was better than the old, but there 
was much that was worse. Horace seems to have felt this very 
deeply, when he says, " The young are brought up in idle, dissi- 
pated habits, and, instead of manly exercises, amuse themselves 
with the childish Greek sports ; while their fathers," he adds, 
"are employed in making money by fraud." ' And this is a 
truthful utterance regarding the education and habits of a 
notoriously evil city. 

CAUSALITY. EDUCATION 

I Traditional, ..... Corresponds to place of family in ideal. 

At home, . . . . . To same. 

Physical, ..... To ideal man as warrior, man of ac- 

tivity. 
\b Both intellectual and physical, for Due to place of state in ideal ; ideal of 

citizenship, ..... man as citizen. 

1 Horace: Odes, iii : 24; 54. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS m 

\c Foreign tutors, .... To beginning of family aggrandize- 
ment. 
Cato and Cornelia, opposing, show the same in essence. 
2 and 3 Youth commonly sent to Athens, To ideal of personal aggrandizement; 

and of pleasure. 
Sophistic teaching, for skill in con- To ideal of personal gain. 

trolling men. 
For refinement and culture, . . To ideal of enjoyment and display. 

Watching others contest, instead of To ideal of enjoyment, which had 
participating one's self, . . taken the place of that of activity. 

For Summary, see following chart : 



I 12 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 







INSTITUTIONS 




Subjugation of Nature 


Social 


PERIOD 


IDEAL 








Material 
Welfare 


Common 
Occupations 


Family 


State 


Republica n 


Devotion to the 


Public buildings 


War and agricul- 


Religious. Po- 


Kingdom. Kings 




State. 


imposing. 


ture. Every 


litically import- 


hold office by gift 


753 — T 46 B. C. 


Virtus et 


Tombs small and 


man worked. 


ant. Gentes 


of people. 




pictas. 


unornamented. 


War a duty — for 


formed curiae. 


Last three kings 




Virtuous liv- 


Art sacerdotal. 


defence — no 


Marriage by ma- 


usurpers, who are 




ing. 


Dwellings mean. 


standing army. 


ntis ; perma- 


expelled. 






Fare frugal and 


Strength decided 


nent ; one wife ; 


Republic. 






life austere. , 


battles. 

Small farmers in 
Italy. 


limited to Ro- 
mans. 

Divorce careful- 
ly guarded. 

Woman made 
the family. 

Father supreme. 

Home life aus- 
tere but happy. 


4Q4 

Plebeian struggles. 
Tribunes of the 
plebs. State = 
the bone of con- 
tention. Gradual- 
ly plebeians gain 
what they desire. 

Popular party 










.against patricians 












and four city tribes. 
















Aggrandize*- 


Homes decorat- 


Army for de- 


Civil coemptio. 


Consolidation. In- 




merit of the 


ed. Domi of 


fence and con- 


"Emancipation 


cipient demoraliza- 




State. 


wealthy more 


quest. 


of woman." 


tion and Party of 




Honorable 


and more osten- 


Standing and 




Reform. 




living. 


tatious. Not so 


paid. 




Social aristocracy 






great contrast 


Legion. 




gaining power. 
Loss of political 






between public 






honesty and of 






and private 






unity. 






buildings. 
New comforts ; 








Transitional '; 


Family and 


War a business. 


Name highly 


Power and wealth 


Later Republic 


Personal Ag= 


then extrava- 


Devotion to 


valued, but 


against the lower 




grandizement. 


gance. 


leaders. 


Gens not the 


classes. Power 


146—29 B. C. 


Personal gain. 




Reliance on cun- 


political unit. 


usurped by senate. 




Money mak- 




ning. 


Family loses old 


Provinces used, not 




ing. 






permanence 


administered. 








Agriculture. 


and happiness. 


Burden of war and 








Wholesale com- 




administration put 








merce. Politics. 




on allies. 








Study. Idle- 




Government = fall 








ness. 


Usus. 

Trinocti 'urn. 


and rise of indi- 
viduals. 

Leges Frumeitr 








Italians give up 




ta rii. 








estates and join 












city rabble. 


Great impurity. 

Family nearly 
destroyed. 


Anarchy. 


Empire 


Enjoyment. 


Very rich and 


Idleness largely. 


Empire. Central- 




Selfish and 


precious decora- 




ization and growth 


29 — 


sensual gratifi- 


tions of houses. 






of order. 




cation ; luxu- 


Ornate tombs. 






Decline of popular 




ry ; display. 


Extravagance. 
Ostentation. 






legislation. 



ROMAN IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS— CHART 



113 



RELATING TO 


Ground of 






Individual 


Main Object 


Organization 


Culture 


Political 


of 






Authority 


Government 


Religion 


Social Customs Education 




State religion on 


Caste — Based on birth ; patri- 


Early in charge of 


Senate : 


Executive : 


political basis. 


cians and clients ; patricians 


mother. Physical. 


Age. 


Defence. 


Cold ; prosaic. 


and plebeians ; all Romans 


Traditional not 


Curies : 


Judiciary : 


Dealings with 


born on a level. (Clientage 


systematic. 


Age and birth. 


Justice to Ro- 


gods mercantile. 


decays.) 






mans. 


Religion essential- 


Slavery. — Slaves few ; cap- 






Legislative : 


ly patrician. 


tives ; of good stock ; lot tol- 
erable ; members of family. 
Custom — Toga national 






General wel- 
fare. 












dress ; pastoral amusements ; 










athletic ; strength rather than 


Private schools in 


Senate : 


Executive : 


Powerful priest- 


skill ; feasts not heavy ; ac- 


charge of paid 


Birth. 


Defence. 


hood ; corrupted 


companied by recitations and 


masters. Object : 


Centuries : 


Judiciary : 


for political pur- 


display of patriotic feeling. 


practical citizen- 


Wealth. 


Justice to citi- 


poses. 


Fescennine verses, Atellane 
farces and mimes (they de- 
generate). Funerals quiet; 
introduction of gladiators at J 
funeral games. 


ship. 




zens. 

Legislative : 
Class intere 1 s. 


Plebeians admitted 


Nobility based more and more 


Foreign tutors. 


Senate : 


Executive : 


to priesthood ; its 


on wealth and political posi- 


General disapprov- 


Wealth and 


Conquest. 


power wanes. 


tion. 


al of sophistic 


birth. 


Judiciary : 


Introduction of 


Increase in number of slaves. 


teaching. 


Tribes : 


Justice to citi- 


foreign divinities 






Power and abil- 


zens and aliens. 


by state and by 






ity. 


Legislative : 


individuals. 








Class interests. 


Oriental worship. 


Caste — Optimates and rabble. 


Sophistic teaching. 


Senate : 


Executive : 


Skepticism, mys- 


New clientage based on 


Schools of rheto- 


Wealth and 


Conquest and 


ticism. Stoicism. 




ricians and gram- 


birth. 


civil war. 


Old religion re- 


wealth. 


marians. Object : 


Tribes and gen- 


Judiciary : 


tained as an in- 


Slavery — Many slaves ; cruel 


skill and power, 


eral : 


Same and fluc- 


strument of gov- 


treatment ; no connection with 


refinement and 


Power and 


tuating. 


ernment. 




culture. 


wealth. 


Legislative : 


Images of gods 


family ; character vicious ; 


Watching trainee 




Popular desires 


used for adorn- 


Orientals largely. 


combatants pre- 




and individual 


ment of private 


Custom — "Bread and shows;" 


ferable, on the 




will. 


houses. 


great gladiatorial games and 
beasts ; mimes very corrupt ; 
gambling; feasts = midnight 
revels, accompanied by volup- 
tuous music and dancing girls 
no mention of state or gov- 
ernment. Toga colored, then 


whole, to contest- 
ing one's self. 






The same. 


Similar. 


Power. 


Executive ; 




discarded. Funerals ostenta- 






Security. 




tious. 






Judiciary : 
Justice to all 
within limits. 

Legislative : 










Will of emperor. 



Chapter III 

THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF IDEALS AND 
INSTITUTIONS IN THE ROMAN WORLD 

When, a few pages back (p. 75), we turned from the develop- 
ment of the moral ideal of Rome to the parallel 
Preliminary— progress in institutions, we said that from the 

Influence of . r . , . . ... 

Greece on Rome time of the empire, and even before, the dis- 
tinctively Roman spirit was not present. Modi- 
fication had occurred, chiefly owing to the influence of Greece. 
Before considering the Roman Empire, then, a word may not 
be out of place regarding the influence of Greece on Rome. 

There are some who would here carry us back to the days 
of Numa. They would make him a Pythagorean, and Rome a 
state founded on Pythagorean principles. Of these men, how- 
ever, Vergil is the most thorough, for he goes back to the be- 
ginning of things, and makes the original Romans Greeks. 
But coming out of this realm of fancy, it seems probable that 
Tarquin the Elder, when he instituted the games, may have 
clone so according to Greek models. At all events, there was 
intercourse between the two peoples at the time of the Decem- 
virate, and that presupposes previous acquaintance. A com- 
mittee of three was sent from Rome, at that time, to study the 
Athenian constitution ; and one of the first apparent results of 
Greek influence was the introduction, upon their return, of the 
worship of Apollo. 

But the great power of Greece over Rome was manifested 
only after the conquest. Gentility, refined im- 
After the morality, and intellectual penetration were 

conquest Greece's most prominent characteristics. The 

process of Hellenization had already broken 
down Greek exclusion; indeed, her own population included 
many Orientals ; and in this same Hellenizing process, con- 
quered Greece in reality subdued victorious Rome. The intel- 
lectual and moral forces from 146 to the introduction of Chris- 
tianity were increasingly Greek. For this there were several 
reasons. One was the great beauty and luxury of Eastern 

("4) 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD U^ 

civilization, entirely foreign to Roman ways. Another was the 
rather uninventive temperament of the Romans, and their 
corresponding ability to apply to good advantage the inventions 
and discoveries of others. These, among other factors, brought 
it to pass that, in growing measure, Greek transformed Roman. 
The customs of the banquet were modeled after the Greek. 
The language of polite conversation was Greek, and a custom- 
ary morning salutation in the Roman Forum was the Greek 
%alpe. The theater was taken bodily from the Greeks. The 
models in literary composition were Greek. The pedagogues 
were Greeks. And, to cap the climax, the great Roman uni- 
versity was Athens. 

Two facts make this aping of Greece a matter of serious 
moment. One was the native coarseness of the 
Romans. Such sensitiveness and delicacy of Why a serious 
refinement as marked the Greeks, they totally Matter 
lacked. Simulation or disguise of any kind was 
reproachfully alluded to as a Greek trait. The Greeks had an 
intellectual life, as distinguished from one which is physical. 
The Romans had only the latter, or, at least, the latter was 
primary. And thence, what were stains more or less unapparent 
on the Greek, became huge blots on the life of the Roman. 
The second was the Roman's lack of discrimination. He ac- 
cepted every Greek custom as an integral part of Greek culture 
and refinement. So we find good and bad alike set up in Rome, 
and the warrant of "Hellenic civilization" considered their equal 
justification. Thinking men of the times understood at least 
the first of these tendencies in Roman nature, and it was from 
this fact that they so strenuously opposed the Greek games and 
the habits of their gymnasia. They felt sure of evil results, 
and the event proved that they were correct. 

The answer to the question why these institutions of the 
Greeks were adopted leads to a connection of 
the facts we have just stated with the theory connection of this 
which our thesis supports. Evidently, there with Thesis 
must have been an ideal which called for the 
adoption of Greek customs ; and, in reality, these customs 
simply furnished new methods for the realization of the ideal of 
personal aggrandizement and enjoyment. No doubt, contact 
with the Greeks did a great deal to change Roman ideals. Yet 



U6 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

Greek civilization was essentially a new mode for Roman self- 
realization. And this is supported by the observation, common 
among historians, that the Romans of the later republic were 
trying to be Greeks, when they were not able. 

At such a time, Augustus came into power. As soon as he 

had quietly gathered into his own hands all the 
character of the reins of government, he found himself, as a re- 
Augustan Empire su it f the Greek influence, and the extent of 

his dominion, the master, not of the city of 
Rome, but of a Graeco-Roman empire. To be sure, the name 
was Rome ; but the army was of diverse extraction, the intel- 
lectual life was predominantly Greek, and the morality was 
Greek, but unrefined, and with Oriental admixtures. 

This was the first period of the empire, and we mark two 

others which were organic, the Age of the 
Periods of the Antonines (96-186 B. C.), and the empire as per- 

Em P ire fected by Diocletian and Constantine. Between 

the first and second, there was the period of 
turmoil in the palace which resulted in the violent death of the 
majority of the reigning emperors, and between the second and 
third, the government was a military despotism. 

I— DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAL 

The ideal in the time of Augustus, we have already sub- 
stantially described. It was of personal enjoy- 
ideai in the ment and called for more or less of culture. 

Time of Augustus Laisscz faire was its policy toward the state, 
but it instructed men to pursue the arts of the 
courtier ; and those who were near the person of the emperor 
chiefly sought to stand first in his favor. There was the same 
attempt at display which we have noted, and the character of 
popular amusements was very low. The citizen claimed to be 
a citizen, not of Rome, but of the world — and someone has re- 
marked that this attitude is usually "a cloak for selfishness." 
Only among the Stoics had the ideal what we to-day call a 
" moral " tone. The main thing was pleasure and advantage. 
The Stoics, indeed, present a somewhat remarkable spectacle, 
preaching (with or without practicing them) the principles of an 
elevated morality, in the midst of general vice and degradation. 
Yet, even their teaching, as their lives, was in the nature of a 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



117 



compromise. Not the conquest of adverse circumstances, but 
the loosing of the bands of life with one's own hand, was the 
great remedy which they prescribed for human ills. And their 
decisions in the matter of particular duties were continually 
fluctuating. 

In the time of the Antonines, the ideal was in many respects 
the same, but more content with a life of tran- 
quility. The ideal demanded a certain amount in the Time of 
of pleasure and excitement, but the tendency the Ant °n»nes 
seems rather away from excess. Christianity, 
Stoicism, and Platonic philosophy were making steady headway, 
and they inculcated among all whom they influenced a new 
ideal of personality. So the ideal included a certain brother- 
hood of mankind ; yet this was as much on the basis of common 
wrongs as on that of equal rights. Christians were here 
numerous enough to give a tinge to the ideal of the period. 
But still they were of their day as much as we all must be. 
Their living was an idealized selfishness, rather than an altruis- 
tic life. Thousands coveted for themselves the martyr's crown, 
and begged to receive it as the reward of faithful confession. 1 
But in this there is no reproach ; it was infinitely better than the 
conduct of multitudes around them. 

We may trace the ideal with a growth which is most appar- 
ent in matters of religion, on to the next organic 
period, the period of Constantine's empire. in the later 

Now there was, apparently, a bursting forth of Empire 

that side of the ideal which we marked in the 
later republic. Then there was a growing and intense desire 
for a positive religious belief. Greek philosophy and Oriental 
worships ministered somewhat to this longing. But in these 
later days, the spread of Christianity gave the ideal a common 
form, and furnished a means for its satisfaction. The life of the 
East, for the center of the empire was there, was strongly 
marked by religiosity. Even what interest there was in politics 
expressed itself in religious factions. But the ideal closely allied 
religion and dogma, and was of man as believing certain state- 
ments of truth, quite as much as doing certain things. The em- 
phasis was on forms and not on character. Yet the ideal 



•So Kedney: Hegel's /Esthetics, p. 178. " There is many a so-called Christian martyr who 
has been so from Oriental or Pagan, rather than on purely Christian grounds." 



Il8 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

demanded a greater purity of life and a broader sympathy, a 
truer feeling of humanity, than its predecessors. 

To a somewhat remarkable degree, this period was a forma- 
tive one in Eastern thought. The religious ideal 
its Persistence found manifestation in ecclesiastical institutions 
peculiar to itself. The predominant emphasis 
on dogma and hierarchical rule, on forms and formularies, 
rather than the realities which they were designed to express, 
is apparent in the Greek, Nestorian, and Armenian churches, 
and to a less extent, in the church of Rome. And as we see the 
first three to-day, they stand in substance for this same ideal of 
the empire, which in religious matters still obtains in the East. 

Briefly, now, we may undertake to show the parallel develop- 
ment of institutions in the Roman Empire. It 
Preliminary as to is, as we have elsewhere noted, characteristic 
institutions £ a monarchy that it can retain for a long time 

a single form of institution, while the ideal of 
the people is gradually changing. This we find true in the 
empire, and so the rate of apparent progress is very slow. 
Another cause of the slow progress is the wide extent 
of the Roman dominion. And a third fact which we should 
remember is that the ideal of the Augustan Age was the basis 
of the ideal in the two succeeding periods. There were, indeed, 
certain tendencies, as we have already shown, in these latter 
periods ; but though some of them went deeper down, most of 
them were rather on the surface of society. The essence of the 
ideal was, all through, about the same. These things, accord- 
ingly, discourage our anticipation of very great or very positive 
progress ; and expecting little, we shall not be disappointed, if 
more appears than that for which we look. 

II— PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING TO 
SUBJUGATION OF NATURE 

First, as to material surroundings. We have already spoken 

of the luxury of the social aristocracy in the 

Material welfare— later days of the republic and in the empire 

Empire under . 

Augustus under Augustus. 1 heir dwellings rivaled the 

buildings of the state ; they were adorned with 

all the ornaments which Greek ingenuity could devise, and 

Roman wealth and arms secure. It is characteristic of the sue- 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



119 



ceeding reigns that the many estates which were confiscated 
were used to gratify the whims of the emperor ; they were for 
his personal use. So there was an immense waste of money. 
The palace of Nero, built of gold, is a single example, and it may 
serve to illustrate the extravagant scale of every undertaking. 
But after society had secured itself during the first century, the 
reigns which we group under those of the An- 
tonines show a much more tranquil condition. under Antonines 
Wealth was apparently better distributed, and 
there were many who were able to spend their lives in the 
pursuit of literature and philosophy. Men seem to have been 
really Hellenized, so that it was possible for them with success 
to play the part of the Greek gentleman. In the military des- 
potism which succeeded, such quiet elegance was impossible. 
The wealth of the empire was consumed by the lust of its 
princes, and the irresponsible authority and control of the army 
made almost any life precarious and continually in doubt. 

When the empire was reorganized, all were equally ground 
down by the government. The main object of 
labor was to supply the taxes, which now had at under Diocletian 
least the formal justification of meeting the ex- and constants 
penses of the court officials and of royalty. 
The officers and the emperor were the only persons of wealth. 
Ordinary citizens, if we may so designate them, could only 
make enough to keep up with the demands of the state, and 
this must be done whether the family had their needs supplied 
or not. In the capital, Constantinople, many public buildings 
arose, built from the imperial treasury. There were great dis- 
plays and most magnificent entertainments, at the public ex- 
pense, and the populace became wild in their excitement and 
enthusiasm. But for the body of the people, the provincials of 
outlying countries, there was only calamity and untold misery. 

CAUSALITY. MATERIAL WELFARE 

1 Luxury, palaces of rich and emperor, Due to ideal of display. 

immense waste, 

2 Better distribution of wealth, . . To tendency away from excess, and 

certain brotherhood in ideal ; but 
much to circumstances. 

3 Officers and emperor alone wealthy ; To continuing ideal of personal enjoy- 

great displays at Constantinople, ment ; (perhaps to ideal of formal 

misery in provinces, . . . religiousness). 



120 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



So largely is the history which we possess confined to the 
government, and to the capitals of the empire, 
common that it is difficult to learn much of the ordinary 

under Augustus occupations. Rome, practically from first to 
last, sought amusement. Yet undoubtedly many 
devoted themselves to trade. The provincials were, as a class, 
thrifty in the days of Augustus. They contributed much to the 
greatness of the empire by their economic productiveness ; in 
fact, they were the support of the city of Rome. 

In the reigns of the Antonines, much the same was true ; 

but owing to the thinning of the old races, 

under the more provincials than formerly had employment 

Antonines [ n t h e arm y Numbers of the citizens followed 

polite literature, though only a few showed any 

considerable ability. 

Under Constantine, all were kept busy in labor for govern- 
ment support. And although Justinian, at a 
under constantine later day, encouraged commerce and many 
special industries, the people were being forced, 
by imperial taxation, into the lethargy of the Middle Ages. 
The city populaces of Constantinople, of Alexandria, and of 
Antioch took up and carried out the customs of Rome. The 
only new element was the influence of Christianity. And this 
had weight as the number of Christian artisans increased, and 
as the growth of the church made the occupation of the Chris- 
tian minister a larger factor in social life. 



CAUSALITY. 

Seeking amusement, 

Traders, 

Thrifty provincials, 

More provincials in army, 

Philosophy and literature, 



Labor to pay taxes, 
Amusement-seeking city, 
Christian ministry, . 



COMMON OCCUPATIONS 

Due to ideal of personal enjoyment. 

To ideal of personal gain remaining. 

To special ideals for each. 

To laissez faire ideal. 

To new ideal of personality; also to op- 
portunity and ideal of personal 
pleasure. 

To ideals of special provinces. 

To personal enjoyment, still continuing. 

To ideal of religious life. 



Christian artisans as a distinct body to the same. 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



121 



III — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING TO 
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 

The institution of the family exhibits a wholesome develop- 
ment. It will be remembered that in the clays 
of Augustus and his immediate successors, an The Family - 
immofal people found no fault with the vices of under Augustus 
its rulers ; rather, it took them as its examples. 
The efforts which the first emperor made to restore family life, 
and their ill-success, may also recur to mind. 

But in the times of the Antonines, the changing ideal seems 
to have induced a new development of family 
life. Indeed, the vices of some of the emperors, under the 

more especially after this period, excited posi- Antonines 

tive disgust among the people. Yet we are not 
to think that society was immediately renovated, or that it was 
restored to its original purity. Only in comparison with the 
life of the preceding century, it was somewhat cleansed. 

Undoubtedly a great part of this elevation of morality was 
due to the influence of Christianity. For in- 
stance, as making woman the possessor of an influence of 
immortal soul, it placed her on an equal footing Christianity 
with man. And this same regard for woman 
marks the Greek romances, a literary feature of these times, 
which are said to be almost chivalrous in their tone. Christ- 
ianity also forbade infanticide — for so long an insurmountable 
barrier to a pure and ennobling family life — and, in addition, 
obtained its royal discouragement. 

In the life of the later empire, an indication of the activity 
of the new ideal, and yet of its intertwining with 
the old, is seen in the celibacy of the clergy, Later Empire - 
and the cognate teaching of the blessedness of of%he°times r ° 
perpetual virginity. Long before the time at 
which these were enjoined as Christian duties, such lives had 
been counted as of distinguished virtue, and undoubtedly they 
had been undertaken in protest against the dissoluteness of the 
world. But by their extreme position, they partook of the 
evils of their antagonists. Neither was the path of perfect vir- 
tue. And, in fact, asceticism, by removing the penitent from 
among men, destroyed the normal working of the leaven of 
Christian living. It must not be taken as an imputation against 



122 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

the sincerity of these early saints, but their celibacy was also 
marked by the same ostentation as the vices of their depraved 
neighbors. The common ideal still held to the idea of real- 
ities as being the things which are apparent, almost external. 
The hermit in his lonely cave and Stylites on his pillar obtained 
reputation for their peculiar and ostentatious expressions of 
piety and religious fervor. The times required some great out- 
ward mark of a changed life and of separation from that which 
is evil. Both good and bad, pagan and Christian, wholly sep- 
arated things social and physical from things spiritual. They 
had no adequate conception of the natural as the manifestation 
of the workings of the supernatural. 

CAUSALITY. THE FAMILY 

1 Immorality, ..... Due to ideal of personal, sensual grati- 

fication. 

2 New development of family life, . To ideal of personality, new, Christian. 
Woman on equality with man, 

Infanticide frowned on. 

Disgust at emperor's vices, . . To same. 

3 Celibacy of the clergy, . . . To ideal of religious life. 
Ostentatious piety, .... To ideal of display. 

During the first two periods, the state was, in form, a con- 
stitutional empire, and in the third, an Oriental 
The state— despotism. In the first epoch, Rome was the 

under Augustus sea t of government ; and the glory of the city 
gave an added luster to the empire. But the 
imperial policy soon did away with the popular assemblies and 
made the senate the center of democratic power, and then that 
body was gradually weakened. The emperor centralized all 
civil power in his own hands. This transformation from the 
period of civil war to a well-ordered and secure government was, 
of course, hailed with delight; and — ill-omen — the people 
more and more relished military rule and called it strong gov- 
ernment. It was under the succeeding Claudians, however, 
that the evil appeared. Augustus was himself a man of broad 
mind and intelligent statesmanship, but his successors forgot 
the true welfare of the people in catering to the public enjoy- 
ment or in ministering to their own desires. Bribery of senators 
became rife. The known attitude of the emperor intimidated 
men who were aware of the prudent and upright path, and who 
otherwise would have advocated it. Then the crimes of each 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



123 



emperor engendered within him a feeling of insecurity, and so 
delatores skulked everywhere in search of information as to the 
sovereign's enemies. Under the circumstances, we might ex- 
pect that these rulers had little acquaintance with peace and 
tranquility. In fact, violence did reign supreme in the palace. 
Six of the first nine emperors fell by the assassin's hand. Of 
the three who ended their days according to nature, Augustus 
is his own memorial, Vespasian is characterized as having been 
a man of hardy virtue, and Titus as "one of the most accom- 
plished and benevolent of men." But of the six, we find that 
Tiberius was, in the judgment of charity, a raging madman ; 
Caligula surpassed the vices of Tiberius ; Claudius, the tool of 
Messalina, was "a monster of wickedness"; Nero bore the 
stain of every crime of which human nature is capable ; glut- 
tony and coarse vices rendered Vitellius remarkable ; and of 
Domitian it is enough to say that he possessed all the vices and 
cruelty of the Claudian family. Surely this was not a pleasing 
spectacle, from our modern point of view. But it did not greatly 
trouble the people, for "bread and shows " still continued. 

At length, deliverance from these wicked rulers ushered in 
the Age of the Antonines. Rome was still the 
seat of the government, and, in a new sense, its under the 

center. Formerly the term " Roman " had ex- Antonines 

eluded a great many. Now it excluded some, 
but a far smaller number. The senate was a body of dignity, 
and its official rites were more or less recognized. Its rolls bore 
the names of a goodly number of provincials, and its member- 
ship was fairly representative of the whole empire. Much of 
the political character of the old republic marked the govern- 
ment ; in fact, it was under that name that men preferred to 
speak of it. Theoretically, the emperor was a president chosen 
for life. He was elected by the senate, with the consent of the 
soldiers, and was privileged to nominate, but could not appoint, 
his successor. There was, in general, harmony between the 
political and military organizations, both being able to center 
their affection and devotion upon a single man. Among the 
citizens at large there was nominally slavery to the emperor ; 
but practically, there was comparative political freedom, and 
a great deal of pride was felt in the Roman rule. 



I2 4 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS, 

The military despotism which followed is indicative of the 
small place which politics really occupied in the 
Military ideal, and of the narrow idea which was corn- 

Despotism monly entertained, at any rate by the soldiers, 

of the duties of a sovereign. It was a hopeful 
sign that the people felt, even a little, the servitude to which 
they were being subjected, and that some of the emperors, and 
the Praetorians, awakened feelings of shame and resentment 
by their high-handed despotism. In these years of transition 
the empire was more and more overshadowing Rome. An 
edict of Caracalla extended the franchise to all within the 
Roman boundaries, and already the population of Rome was 
only a small percentage of that of the empire. Many of the 
emperors were not Romans by birth. Some of the most 
worthy were persons who a century and a half before would 
have been counted barbarians and fit only to be slaves. The 
vitality of the nation was in the provinces, and its hope was the 
advancing Northern tribes. 

In the Oriental empire, inaugurated by Diocletian and per- 
fected by Constantine, we see the complete cen- 
Diocietian tralization of civil and military power. The 

constantine preceding military despotism had reduced all 

other power before that of the soldiery. Now 
civil power was reorganized on a military basis. The result 
was an admirable governmental machine. The emperor be- 
came a sultan. Living in seclusion, he increased the dread and 
awe in which he was held by the difficulty of access to his per- 
son. He appointed his successor, and no one could gainsay. 
Amongst the people this imperial machine was an uniform 
crushing tyranny, and it stopped only with the limits of the 
empire. Now there was real political slavery, and a new 
official class was formed by the overseers and task-masters 
deputed by the throne. 

The establishment of the government at Constantinople and 
the division of the empire mark the beginning 
End of the °f tne en d °f R° me - Her most ambitious and 

oid Roman Sway noteworthy spectacles had been the triumphs of 
victorious generals, but the last of these was 
celebrated by Diocletian in 303. In the West the continued 
growth of the Gothic power ultimately prevailed, and accom- 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



125 



plished the extinction of the Roman rule in 476. In the East 
the empire still persevered. The circus at Constantinople be- 
came the theater of struggles similar to those which Rome had 
witnessed. The factions of the circus had been imported from 
Italy, and were made a part of the city organization. The 
Whites were allied with the Blues, and the Reds with the 
Greens, and the two parties with the two divisions of the 
church. Each of the two factions had a regular organization, 
and any citizen might obtain membership. By these parties 
the people expressed their will in the circus, and so much is 
even a despotic prince subject to the will of the people, that 
Justinian is said to have been dependent for his position on the 
support of the Blues. 

This great emperor marks the limit of the old Roman 
spirit. In a sense, his codification of the laws was the burial 
of the political vitality of the Roman empire, a sign that its 
law-making was over. And by his abolition of the XII Tables, 
he also marked the extreme of the old Roman sway. In 542, 
the great plague spread a sort of pall over the whole empire. 
Justinian applied himself more strictly to ecclesiastical affairs, 
and the army decayed for want of anything to do. The epoch 
was everywhere pervaded by a sort of foreboding gloom, as 
when, with the ominous mutterings and rumblings of distant 
thunder, the sky becomes overcast with heavy clouds. 

It would be a serious omission to make no mention of the 
political influence of Christianity. The Chris- 
tian, to be sure, had of himself no place in the p iit; C ai influence 
ruling class. By the teachings of the Fathers, of Christianity 
he was to suffer and to bear in patience the bur- 
dens of government. Nevertheless, by Christian emperors, 
the teachings of the new religion were gradually introduced 
into the workings of the state, and their trace is seen in the 
adoption of Christianity by Constantine, and in the Institutes 
of Justinian. Yet, a more important influence was the growth 
within the despotic imperialism of a republic of God, a state in 
which mutual love and friendship and a common charity were 
enthroned to reign supreme, as the .laws of God revealed to men. 
This was a new political life, and therefore a vital force, in 
the midst of the old and dying state. And alone of all the or- 
ganizations of Rome, this was able to survive the shock of 
barbarian invasion, and the darkness of the mediaeval age. 



I2 6 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

CAUSALITY. THE STATE 

1 Centralization of civil power, strong Due to ideal of personal enjoyment 

government, .... laissez /aire. 

Bribery of senators, . . . To ideal of personal gain. 

Intimidation, ..... Of imperial favor and self-interest. 

This, delatores, violence in palace, To ideal of personal aggrandizement. 

2 " Roman " constituency broader, . To ideal of personality and brother- 

hood. 

Senate dignified and representative, To same. 

Real freedom, though nominal po- To ideal of personality, 
litical slavery, .... 

Military despotism, . . . To ideal of personal power and laissez 

/aire. 

All in empire Romans, . . . To ideal of personality and brother- 

hood. (On emperor's part, to ideal 
of personal gain.) 

Barbarian emperors, . . . To ideal of personality. 

3 Oriental despotism, . . . To ideal of personal aggrandizement, 

enjoyment, and display. 

Religious factions, .... To ideal of religiousness in form, and 

to new ideal of personality. 

Republic of God, .... To Christian ideal — new ideal of per- 
sonality in its pure and best form. 

But Christianity was first a new religion, and its primary 
effect is witnessed in religious institutions. We 
Religion— have seen how prevalent were skepticism and 

under Augustus foreign superstition in the time of Augustus. 
Political habit made men stand by the rites of 
the Roman religion, but at heart they despised it all. Stoic 
philosophy taught that a man should duly perform the religious 
ceremonies of his own country. But the Stoic himself made 
philosophy his real religion, and in his view the educated classes 
generally shared. So far as they found any consolation or hope, 
it was in the uncertain teachings of these theorists. Yet, hand 
in hand with this agnosticism and discrediting of the national 
divinities, we find most abject belief in omens and portents. 
There seems to have been a sort of medley of Oriental super- 
stitions swaying men's minds. How just were the conceptions 
of religion, of its place and its value, may be judged from the 
apotheosis of the emperors. Simply a matter of political policy, 
it degraded religion even below a blind devotion to humanity. 
And this really grew worse in the succeeding reigns, when not 
good rulers only, but men most infamous, received, with 
scarcely an exception, the customary deification. 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



127 



In the Age of the Antonines, however, Christianity exercised 
a positive influence as a religion. Many still 
worshiped in the old ways, a large number Ageofthe 

frequented the shrines of Oriental divinities, Antonines 

many sought consolation in the teachings of the 
philosophers. But none of these, to any extent, made proselytes. 
Christianity alone asserted its inherent power by the enrolling of 
recruits under its standards. A critical test of any religion is 
its ability to stay human fears in the last hours of mortal life, 
the view, namely, which it takes of death. Roman religion, 
naturally, had little to offer here ; it was only a ritual on a 
political basis. Oriental beliefs magnified life and centered 
attention in it. The Stoics glorified the fact of death as the 
doorway out of life, a release from the world's burdens. But 
Christianity taught that men were to use life, and then to wel- 
come death as the entrance into a still continuing life beyond 
the grave. For this world is taught contentment, cheerfulness, 
and deeds of charity, and to those who were weary and sick at 
heart, it offered an abiding consolation. Hence, in one particu- 
lar, its superiority. It is worth noting, too, that, for the first 
time in the history of Greece or Rome, religion was brought 
forward as the inspiration and sanction of a reform. This 
shows the higher ethical ground of Christianity, as well as its 
hold upon the nation. 

From these facts we expectantly look forward to a great de- 
velopment in religion, but we do not find it along 
the lines in which we might anticipate. The Time of 

ideas of Christianity failed to obtain free play. constantine 

They were mingled with those of the generation. 
And so what was full of promise for social morality was con- 
tracted and restrained. There was a vigorous spirit of religion 
and morality, religion excited much more interest than politics ; 
but theology was the predominant power. The heat of religious 
fervor was spent in polemical debates, and the subject of these 
disputes was not paganism or sin, as this might appear in con- 
duct, but heretical dogma. The fact which is most commonly 
caught up as peculiarly marking this Age of Constantine is the 
adoption of Christianity as the state religion. Certainly this 
meant much, and we should not underrate its real importance. 
Whatever the emperor's motive may have been, it is indicative 



I2 8 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

of a new ideal that this religion did not seek political support, 
but that, perchance, the emperor desired the undergirding of the 
new faith for the authority of the empire. 

CAUSALITY. RELIGION 

1 Formal religion a political habit, . Due to remnant of ideal of early Rome, 

and citizenship. 
Various religions, .... Due to particularistic standpoint of 

ideal. 
Abject belief in portents, . . To ideal of ease and enjoyment. 

Deification of emperors, . . . To ideal of imperial favor, form of 

that of personal gratification. 

2 Many worship in old ways, . . Due to old ideas, strengthened by re- 

flex of new ideal of personality. 
Synchretizing process, . . . To ideal as recognizing a certain broth- 

erhood; and of personality. 
Christianity sets up a higher ethical To new ideal of personality, the 
standard ; is a positive converting Christian ideal, 

force ; religion basis of political 
reform. 

3 No vigorous development of Chris- To ideal of form rather than life. 

tianity, theology predominating . 
Adoption of Christianity as state re- To ideal of religiousness on people's 
ligion, ..... part; also of personal gain on part 

of emperor. 

Next in order are the customs of society, the institutions 
of slavery and caste distinctions. Of the last, 
society — caste it may be said at the outset that the empire 
Distinctions was unfavorable to them. There was but one 

established division, the emperor and the people. 
But there were other contributing causes. One was that the 
rich young men quickly wasted their wealth, and that proscrip- 
tions early removed all men of dangerous estate or position. 
Another, was the general circulation of people from all the 
universe through Rome. " She received them slaves, and sent 
them back Romans." So it was that the distinctions of the re- 
public were rapidly broken down, and in practical life high 
birth counted for very little. Some of the richest — and there- 
fore noblest — men after Caligula were freedmen, and one of the 
most ornate tombs which has been discovered on the Appian 
way was erected by a freedwoman of the early empire. Yet 
there is here, as one might infer, the division into rich and 
poor, the basis for a distinction in position and privileges, 
though not in rights. In the time of the Antonines, the body 
of the Italian residents formed, in a sense, a middle class, a sort 
of aristocracy of culture. And there was still in men's minds a 
broad distinction between Romans and barbarians. But under 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD i2 g 

Constantine, this separation had disappeared. "Roman" had 
become only a name ; it lacked the old significance. The 
people of the empire in this later period constituted a body of 
imperial servants, and aside from them, there was only an 
official class, composed largely of Orientals, who executed to the 
letter the commands of their master. 

CAUSALITY. CASTE 

1 Strong caste divisions, . . . Due to ideal of personal enjoyment and 

display. 

2 Little caste intensity, middle class of To new ideal of personality, and to 

Italian residents, . . . tendency away from excess. 

Line between Romans and barbar- To ideal of brotherhood, 
ians letting down, 

3 All members of empire Romans, . To same increasing; broader sympathy. 
All imperial servants, ... Of personal gain on part of emperor ; 

of ease on people's part (?). 

Slavery was, under Augustus, a most cruel and degrading 
institution. Slaves were many. They had, 
practically, no rights. They were considered slavery 

simply as "vocal instruments." And yet, the 
possibility of manumission, the common result of faithful ser- 
vice, mitigated somewhat the hardships of their lot. The tran- 
quil Age of the Antonines witnessed enactments in favor of 
slaves. Perhaps the most important was the establishment by 
Hadrian that slaves had some rights before the law. More 
attention was paid to their training, and in consequence, their 
condition was much ameliorated, and not a few of them occupied 
positions of responsibility. Many of the best educators of 
Rome were slaves. Undoubtedly, the decrease in the number 
of captives, and the consequent dependence on the natural in- 
crease of the slave population, had something to do with the 
milder and more humane treatment. Stoicism, too, had some in- 
fluence. But the great power was Christianity, as it inculcated 
new ideas of humanity, of what it meant and whom it included, 
and so modified the old ideal. In Constantine's empire, the 
whole body of the people were reduced to the condition of 
agricultural serfs. But the distinction between slave and free 
still remained — now only a matter of the degree of servitude. 
We note, in Justinian's reign, that the number of ways in which 
a slave might be manumitted was increased. And this may 
serve us as a sign, embedded in the legislation of the times, of 
the leaven of Christian humanity. 
9 



130 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



CAUSALITY. SLAVERY 



i Cruel treatment; slaves many, de- ' Due to ideal of enjoyment, display, 
graded, ..... and personal ease. 

2 Rights of slaves at law, better train- New ideal of personality, Christian. 

ing, responsible positions. 

3 All subjects agricultural serfs, Due to ideal of personal gain. 

though distinctions in servitude 
remain ..... 
Increase of ways of manumission, . To Christian ideal, broader sympathy. 

The social customs of the empire present but few great 
variations. In general the development was 
social customs toward purity and away from cruelty. 

The gladiatorial games marred the first two 
periods, and we shudder at their barbarity, unparalleled 
among educated peoples. But under Constantine, they were 
put down, and instead great spectacles were provided. In 
the Age of Antonines, a change apparently had already 
begun. It may be that by continual reading we grow ac- 
customed to the monotonous recital of imperial benefactions, 
and we do not give its true weight to the oft-repeated tale 
of bread and shows, shows and bread. But it really seems as 
though life at this time had somewhat regained its balance, and 
as though there was a general abstention from excess. In 
these happy reigns there was, too, considerable freedom in 
family and social life, apparently a fresh and vigorous develop- 
ment. But the new brood of emperors rendered it short-lived. 
It was not until the Christian empire that it could grow at all. 
In the time of Augustus, the lives of her citizens still bore the 
marks of Rome. But under Constantine, the forces of the East 
and the far West had their effect. The most apparent of the 
new characteristics were Oriental softness and effeminacy, 
which the former engendered in the Asiatic provinces, and 
Gothic rudeness and turmoil, which ruled in the West and 
reveled in the rich bed of the decaying civilization. Yet, to the 
latest days, there was a common temper among the people. All 
along, a large proportion of the Romans were maintained and 
amused at the public expense, and at any time it would have 
been safer for the emperor to omit the distributions of corn, than 
the spectacles for the entertainment of the people. 



IN THE ROMAN WORLD 



CAUSALITY. CUSTOMS 



131 



1 Gladiatorial games, Roman life of Due to ideal of personal pleasure. 

entertainment. 

2 Gladiatorial games, but more balance, To new ideal of personality, growing 

and appearing as tendency away 
from excess. 
Family and social life developed, . To new ideal of personality. 

3 Great spectacles instead of gladia- To Christian ideal. 

torial games .... 
Oriental life in court, . . . To ideal of pleasure and ease (from 

Eastern peoples). 
Gothic life, ..... Likewise to native ideals; see early 

Teutonic. 

Possibly the most compact summary in which to bring this 
development before our minds is by the grouping together of 
its characteristic places and personalities. The latter may 
present the ideals of the different ages, and the former their in- 
stitutions ; and their correspondence will be at once allowed. 

Typical places are : of the first period, Rome and Baiae ; of 
the second, Rome, Alexandria, and Corinth ; and of the third, 
Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople. 

Typical characters are : of the Augustan Age, Augustus, 
Seneca, and Livia ; of that of the Antonines, Pliny the Younger ; 
and of the later epoch, Constantine — who may stand, by oppo- 
sition, for the provincials — and John Chrysostom, sometime 
bishop of the Eastern capital. 

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Chapter IV 

THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF TEUTONIC 
IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

The problem which history since the fall of the Western 
Roman Empire presents to us is by no means 
simple. It touches occurrences fourteen cen- preliminary — 

turies apart. It has to do with a multitudinous Difficulties 

and widely-scattered population. Its develop- 
ment is seen, not in the progress of a single nation, but in the 
growth of numerous barbarian tribes. Were we to attempt to 
trace each tribe with the change in its ideal and institutions (if 
that were not well-nigh impossible), the undertaking would be 
too vast. But, fortunately, there is one race-family, the Teu- 
tonic, which has shaped the destiny of Europe ; and for our pur- 
poses, we may consider the development of European civiliza- 
tion as, in general, that of the Teutonic race. If objection be 
made to this position, justification may be found in the facts of 
a common barbarism, and of a common contact more or less 
slight with Rome, before the sixth century, and in the con- 
sideration that " Teutonic " is here used in a representative 
rather than an exact sense. It stands, in general, for that whole 
body of barbarians from whom have sprung the Western 
Europeans of to-day. 

In Roman civilization, in order to note the true development, 
we began, not when Greece first came in con- 
tact with or strongly influenced the city, but Divisions of 
with the early fathers of the state. So in Teutonic History 
European history, we commence with the early 
life of the Teutonic tribes, and learning thus their primitive 
ideals and institutions, we obtain the basis for the developments 
of mediaeval and modern history. The most natural division 
into periods seems to be : 

I. Primitive Teutonic, to 400 A. D. 
II. Romano-Teutonic or Transitional, 400-500. 

III. Dark Ages, 500-1 100. 

IV. Restoration of Order, 1 100-1400. 

V. Revolution and Re-adjustment, 1400 — . 
(*33) 



I34 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

To-day, in a very true sense, we are still in the Middle — 
though not the Dark — Ages, for the elements of modern social 
order have not yet crystalized. Feudalism was an organic 
stage of society, but not so our organization to-day. Between 
that time and this, there has been going on the preparation for 
a new society. And the manifestations of a Teutonic ideal in a 
Teutonic race, as in the German Empire and the American Re- 
public, are the signs of a new political life and an era of wide- 
spread personal self-realization. 

As has been our custom, we shall first present the develop- 
ment of the moral ideal, and then show the parallel develop- 
ment of institutions. 

I — THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAL 

In the early Teutonic days, the chief element of the ideal of 
the half-savage barbarian was personal prowess. 
Primitive Attention was concentrated on activity ; cer- 

Teutonic ideal ta i n things were to be done, and he simply did 
them. A double sphere of life, however, gave 
to this ideal two diverse colorings. The first was domestic. 
The ideal man was a member of a family, and as such he was 
strong in defending and advancing its interests. It was from 
the nature of the family that the idea of duty took its origin, 
and about the family hearth the first lessons concerning duty 
were learned. Even the child was made to feel the call of the 
family for fidelity, truthfulness, and loyalty to duties. And 
later, he saw that courage was exalted, while the coward was 
despised, and experienced the demand for economy, for upright- 
ness, and for purity in the life of the home. How weighty was 
the sanction which these obligations thus received, we may 
judge from the fact that a punishment heavier than death was 
expulsion from the family, and that parricide was considered 
peculiarly horrible and infamous. 

The second sphere of life was public. The ideal man was a 
member of a military organization. Here he was, of course, prefer- 
ably a leader, yet he knew how to be a loyal follower. In either 
case, an intense love of personal independence and individual 
freedom marked his conduct. The ideal chief had wealth and 
immense tribute, great power, and a mighty fame ; but more 
important, was that without which these possessions never 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS i^ 

came, a warlike spirit and undaunted courage. And the leader 
stood for what each of his followers desired. One and all, these 
Teutons have well been characterized as " Gentes periculorum 
avidas." The instinct to fight seems to have been inborn. 
Fighting was " the sport of children, the rivalry of youth, the 
habit of age." To play, to dance, to fight — all these, our 
English word "lark" expressed to them. And what they con- 
ceived as the height of happiness was not essentially different, 
the " dream," the blitheness when the horn began to go round 
and song and merry wassail occupied. In many respects it was 
the counterpart of the clash of arms and the intense excite- 
ment of the battlefield. 

Of course we do not expect perfection, or anything like it, 
from these " children of the forest." As Kingsley says, " They 
were only big boys, having the passions and lacking the re- 
straints of men." Yet it is evident that they did possess a cer- 
tain real nobility and steadfastness and independence, a cour- 
age, a loyalty, and a purity which make us honor them in spite 
of their pride and their boasting, their ignorance and their love 
of bloodshed. Their ideal was largely external, and the goods 
which they valued were chiefly of the body, yet there was a 
touch of higher feeling. The note is worth the making, too, 
that while the Teutons were' guilty of many evil deeds, their 
vices sprang not from moral exhaustion, but from coarseness, 
and that coarseness can be refined. Their abundant life and 
activity were surely the promise of much greater things. 

The fifth century A. D. was, roughly speaking, the period 
of the barbarian invasions, the time at which 
the Teutons first came into close and direct con- Transitional 

tact with Rome. The result was a rather de- 
cided change in the ideal. Emphasis was 
thrown on pleasure as the end of life, and the tendency to 
feasting and drinking, which had formerly terrified even the 
Romans, took high rank among the desires that were to be 
gratified. In general, there was, as in the earlier age, a pre- 
dominance of the idea, that a man's life consists in the things 
which he has. Yet, side by side with this, was a growing respect 
for old age, even though the aged person was weak and feeble, 
There was, too, an increasing sense of man as in some political 
relations, and the gradual acquirement of a feeling of proprietor- 



136 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



ship, which, in the next period, was ready on the one hand to 
assert, and on the other to allow, the absolute right of mediaeval 
royalty. 

From the fifth century to the twelfth, from the time when 

the barbarians had settled down to work out 
Dark Ages their mission to the beginning of the recovery 

from the almost fatal decline of the year iooo, 
the ideal was the satisfaction of individual selfish aims. In 
the leaders, there was ambition for personal power; in the peo- 
ple at large insatiable cupidity. The great tendency of the times 
was away from centralization. Charlemagne, like a meteor, 
served only to make visible the darkness of the political sky. 
Among men in general, there was no conception of government 
as administrative, and very little of it as legislative. They 
thought of it chiefly as an authority for punishing wrong- 
doing ; and the limitation was added that punishment must 
not be allowed to interfere with a person's freedom. Nor 
was the ideal of high attainment. It was of bodily strength 
and safety, of plunder and pillage. Yet there was something 
good. Harm and steal if you can, was the teaching, but openly. 
Sneaking, treachery, and cowardice were greatly despised. Pri- 
vate ethics was tinged, albeit never so slightly, with Chris- 
tianity. And after a little the rough men learned not to sack 
the monasteries, and even viewed them with a sort of holy awe. 
Yet, at the end of this period, we find that the ideal recognized 
force instead of law, and that the two principles of society were 
land and the sword. Every man who had the power did as he 
pleased. Action was willful and capricious, and without co-op- 
eration. 

Somewhere about the beginning of the twelfth century, we 

enter on the restoration of society, and the 300 

Restoration of . ,, . . r 

order. Feudal years that follow mark the organic stage 01 
society — Predom- mediaeval civilization. The spirit of the times 

inant Ideal . 

was that of privilege. The predominant charac- 
teristic of the ideal seems to have been high position in a social- 
military order. At first, this position was valued in itself for 
the power it brought and the ability it gave to gratify personal 
desires. But soon, its various possibilities were followed out in 
the directions in which they led, and it was made to serve as 
the ground for divers military undertakings, immediately, pri- 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



137 



vate wars, then the crusades, and lastly the glorious fulminations 
of chivalry. Yet, of course, this was not the ideal unmixed. It 
was power combined with ambition, and the feeling of personal 
rights that at first obtained the position. The ideal in its par- 
ticularization was a curious combination of the principles of 
Feudalism, Christianity, and Chivalry. Of the whole, Christ- 
ianity was nominally the center, and the virtues of Feudalism 
and Chivalry were such as the church could approve. Feudalism 
enjoined truth-speaking, and the troubadours sang of God as 
"the God who never lies." The crusades were an opportunity 
offered by the church for the satisfaction of military ambition, 
and liberality and frankness were demanded of the knights of 
chivalry. Yet the church was only. the representative of Christ- 
ianity ; and neither the church nor the crusades which it 
planned were governed wholly by the highest motives. For the 
popes were not free from the ambition to rule. The temporal 
power was, to their minds, the completion and security of papal 
authority. Among the people, no doubt religious motives 
stirred some to crusade. But the hope of lands moved others, 
the military spirit led not a few, still others went on account of 
political reasons, and many made the journey for plunder — all 
of which, to say nothing of motives even more despicable, were 
hardly very high incentives to the performance of a Christian 
duty. 1 It may from this be inferred that the ideal was still 
largely external. For instance, in the twelfth century the chief 
and common desire for the boys of the day was physical strength, 
and a little later, strength and elegance. And yet we must not 
underrate the frankness which was demanded, and the odium 
with which deceit was met when it was discovered. The ideal 
may not have demanded mildness, or other things which we per- 
haps consider more essential, but it did demand a measure of 
morality. 

Meantime, two other ideals were being conserved for the 
time of their manifestation, one in the com- 
munes — the ideal of popular government and other ideals latent 

in Communes and 

of a life of labor and trade, and the other in the church — 

church — the ideal of equality and of social 

unity. In the last part of this period, they began to unfold and 



1 A letter from Alexis of Constantinople to the Count of Flanders urges as reasons for crusad- 
ing, " amor auri et argenti et pulcherimarum foeminarum voluptas." 



138 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

to take a place in the prevailing ideal of Europe. The first to 
exert a strong influence, was the ideal of the Free Cities. 1 
These last years had witnessed a decay of the chivalrous senti- 
ments, a decided lessening in enthusiasm, and a lowering in the 
popular morals. For a time, men were seemingly unconscious 
of what they were doing. Finally, however, they awoke to a de- 
sire for genuine order and comfort. Many embraced the ideal 
of the cities, and it became a formative element in mercantile 
and political life. It was at this time, also, that artisans and 
merchants began to be considered as good as knights. The 
barriers of society were beginning to crumble — sign of anew 
period and a new ideal. 

In the next, and last, era — that of modern history — the rul- 
ing mark of the ideal seems to be the conscious 
Revolution and realization of individuality. Man is recognized 

Readjustment . 

Modern History at first, and in increasing measure, as man, in 
all the broad significance of that inclusive term. 
The struggle for freedom moves from realm to realm of human 
life, and in each case it is individualistic. The ideal places 
emphasis upon individual rights in relation to the existing order. 
Already, as we have just said, business and trade were opening. 
The ideal pictured man as conquering nature, and making a live- 
lihood from his surroundings. The first forward movement was 
in intellectual affairs. Men must be intellectually free ; this 
was the ideal of the Renaissance. Freedom from authority, 
both for the individual and for the nation, was the ideal of the 
Reformation ; and continued in the form of liberty of conscience 
it was seen in the deeds of the Pilgrim Fathers and in the 
English Revolution. The emphasis of the ideal was next on 
freedom of social and political life, in the time of the American 
and French revolutions. And last is the predominance of free- 
dom of social life, which is, in general, the aim to-day. 

In another way of putting it, the Teutonic ideal of the last 
500 years has been a person as a person, 2 and while the concep- 
tion of personality has been continually widening, it has yet 

1 This statement may be questioned, and the fact cited that the church had a great influence 
all through the Middle Ages. But it will be universally allowed that the ideal of social unity 
and of the equality of all men has not exercised a very strong control, until comparatively recent 
years; and this is the especial ideal that was being conserved in the church. 

2 It is possible that to some minds this phrase, " the ideal of man as man," or of " a person as 
a person " will not convey a distinct idea. It signifies (1) that men are conscious of themselves as 
individual personalities, i. e., as men ; and (2) that therefore they consciously seek the realization 
of personality as personality, i. e., individual self-realization. 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



139 



always remained generically the same. The desire to be has 
been, on the whole, more characteristic than the desire for pos- 
sessions. First, the emphasis was upon intellectual capacities, 
next it touched the religious nature, then political, and, lastly, 
social life. And the effect has been cumulative. Each new 
attribute has been, indeed, an addition to that which preceded, 
so that to-day the ideal includes more than ever before, and a 
man is more of a man. Meantime, there has been also a differ- 
entiation between public and private life, an advance from 
the time when everything was for the king. And while the 
common ideal has yet much of selfishness and the love of con- 
quest is still strong, the objects of pursuit have certainly 
changed with the slow refinement of human nature. The 
teachings of Christianity are now more widely received and 
practiced, and the feeling of the brotherhood of all mankind is 
now more general than ever before has been the case in the 
development of humanity upon the earth. 

II — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING TO 
SUBJUGATION OF NATURE 

Now giving our attention to institutions, we first consider 
those habits of social life which have to do with 
material welfare ; and in them we find the man- Material welfare 
ifestation of the developing characteristics of the — 4°° 
ideal. The early Teuton had a house which was 
his own, and even before he possessed what we should call the 
foretaste of comfort, he began to adorn this, his home. Of 
course, there was little chance for luxury in any direction. Only 
in selecting skins for clothing he always exercised great care, 
and his ornaments, though few and rude, were some of them of 
gold. Yet, in his way, he had comfort, enough to eat, and 
clothing to wear. 

In the short period of transition, the old customs were in a 
manner swept away. The barbarians gained a 
new idea of life in its material aspects. A com- 400-500 

fort and luxury, a gorgeous display which they 
had not before conceived was all around them, and they reveled 
in its pleasures. They accepted without reflection the things 
which it gave them, and their principal habit became that of 
taking what they could get without labor. Naturally they 



140 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



showed some little elevation, from contact with their new sur- 
roundings, but they did not rise above them. 

So it came to pass that in the Dark Ages there was general 
rudeness and poverty. There was no systematic 
500-noo attempt to till the soil, and people lived, in the 

main, from hand to mouth. Charlemagne tried 
to bring order out of the great individualization, but he did not 
succeed. More permanently useful were the monks, who, far 
out in the wilds of the forests, cleared broad fields, built them- 
selves monasteries, and spent their lives in showing the people 
how to coax from the earth the products of the fertile soil. The 
material condition of the times may be seen from the fact that 
of the seventy years from 970 to 1040, forty were years of either 
famine or plague. Moreover, there were in this period the in- 
roads of the Northmen, and the ideal, with its emphasis upon 
personal gratification, made impossible the organization of any 
great force which might be opposed to them. With impunity 
they laid waste much country. 

It was toward the close of this period, and in the next, that 
the castle appeared. Previously the houses had 
1100 1400 been, we have reason to think, a great improve- 

ment on primitive times. But of the Feudal 
Age, the castle was typical. Usually it occupied the brow of 
some hill, and so commanded a broad range of vision. Its bat- 
tlements were significant of feuds and private wars, and its 
great halls of the bands of armed retainers. At the foot of the 
hill were clustered the huts of the serfs, and as compared with 
the lofty walls of stone, they manifested the ideal of the times 
and exhibited the humble position of their occupants. Material 
wealth increased for the lords in the time of the crusades. In 
the twelfth century there was considerable luxury. The decora- 
tion of the houses was quite ornate, both within and without. 
Yet all was coarse, rather than elegant. In the fourteenth cen- 
tury, likewise, we see great luxury and extravagance among the 
nobility and clergy, and wretchedness among the peasants. 
But the peasants were beginning to realize their rights as 
men, as the Jacquerie bore savage testimony. 
moo— And soon things began to change for the better. 

By 1450, there was a broader diffusion of mov- 
able wealth ; and on down to our own day, the advance which is 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



141 



commonly marked above all others is that in material welfare. 
No longer needed for defence, the battlements of the feudal 
castles were soon turned into turrets and ornaments. The ex- 
plorations of the voyagers, the invention of gunpowder and 
the invention of printing created a material revolution. This 
was perfectly in harmony with the new ideal of man as man, 
first exhibited now in the field of intellect ; and the value of 
these innovations would have been little, but for the presence 
of the same ideal. Yet it was not till the French Revolution 
that man was able to work out his desires, as regarded material 
nature, with any sort of freedom. In 1780 France was owned 
by her upper classes. One three-hundrecl-and-twenty-fifth of 
the population owned one-fifth of the land. The clergy and the 
nobility had in their power two-thirds of her domain ; one-fourth 
of her arable land lay fallow. The agricultural system was 
still practically that of the tenth century, and increased taxation 
was the only inducement held out by prosperity. Then the 
ideal which had been gathering power for so long had its mani- 
festation in the French Revolution. In a few days, the old 
gave place to the new, and there was the beginning of greater 
material welfare for the French people. To-day, we have not 
reached the limit. Modern discoveries have, for practical pur- 
poses, largely annihilated space ; they have made impossibilities 
realities, and the commonplaces of other days well-nigh impos- 
sible. Yet there are unknown storehouses of wealth and power 
still before us, to be conquered and rendered useful, as we are 
able to enter upon their occupancy. The high ideal of man as 
man, and the methods prevalent in the subjugation of nature are 
still progressing, as they have thus far developed, side by side. 

CAUSALITY. MATERIAL WELFARE 

1 House of his own, .... Corresponds to ideal of man as mem- 

ber of family. 
Some adornment and comfort, . In their nature to warrior ideal; but in 

themselves to circumstances. 

2 Borrowed splendor, . . . Due to ideal of pleasure. 

3 Rudeness and poverty, . . . Due to individual selfish aims. 

4 Castle, wealth and ornateness but not To ideal of privilege, and previous 

elegance. Huts, and misery of continuing, 

peasants and serfs, 

5 Greater diffusion of movable wealth, To ideal of personality of all. 
Discovery and invention, . . To ideal of personality in each man. 
Breaking up of old agricultural To ideal of a person as a person. 

system, . . . 



142 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



This is further apparent in the common occupations which 

engaged men. The business of the primitive 

common Teuton was war; hunting furnished additional 

Occupations 

4 oo employment, and to some extent a recreation. 

The care of the home and the farm was given 
over to the women. They also, with their slaves, were the 
tailors and cobblers, and to them any writing was assigned. The 
only reputable handicraft for a man was the forging of armor 
and weapons. Hence the smiths were the honorable artisans. Of 
commerce, there was a little, but it was fitful and fragmentary. 
It is easy to see how all this centers about the ideal of man as a 
warrior, and the support of the family and the tribe as the 
bounden duty of all. For this reason the barbarian traders 
would be few and far between, for such men would have to for- 
sake their tribal relations. 

The Romano-Teutonic period does not show a marked 

change in occupations. No doubt a good many 
400-500 learned more thoroughly the methods of agri- 

culture. Yet in the main, the advance for those 
who came into closest contact with Rome was in the elevation 
of pleasure-seeking and of the gratification of personal desires 
into an occupation. 

So it came about that in the next period, the ideal of 

personal, willful satisfaction makes any sort of 
500—1100 classification difficult and uncertain. The clergy 

declared at one time, by their actions, if not 
by their words, that idleness was holy, and at another they 
made sporadic attempts to instruct the barbarians. Char- 
lemagne would have had agriculture an established custom, 
but the people did not so will. And after his death, it was the 
old story of feud and revenge as the main pursuits of everyone 
who had the power. Serfs and vassals were set at tilling the 
soil ; but not because they desired to do so — rather because it 
was the command of their lord. 

The further manifestations of the feudal ideal (the last 

statement in the preceding paragraph falls also 
noo-1400 under this paragraph as well) in the crusades 

and in chivalry affected, of course, the common 
occupations. They stimulated the trade of the armorer and 
the business of making equipments. The crusades threw the 
care of the great estates into new hands, and so infused fresh 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



H3 



life and vigor into agriculture. They also gave to commerce a 
powerful impetus, furnishing new materials and new methods. 
There was, too, the beginning of a movement towards fixed 
limits of work for corresponding wages. But at the same time 
there were the restrictions of powerful corporations, for in- 
stance, the Hanseatic League and the company of the Seine ; 
and in the Free Cities there grew up monopolies and guilds 
which were ultimately inimical to industry. Here, as in the 
feudal system, the chief thing was position in an order, and only 
those who belonged to the guilds could exercise the various 
crafts. 

This continued far into the next period, till finally the new 
ideal touched occupations too. Then there was 
a wonderful development in the number of em- 1400 — 

ployments. The exaggerated regulations of la- 
bor and trade, one by one, have been removed. And particu- 
larly in these later days, there are opening new avenues of 
business, and in the old paths, fresh opportunities. But the 
end of this is not yet ; the ideal is still at work. 

CAUSALITY. COMMON OCCUPATIONS 

1 War, hunting, forging weapons only, Corresponds to ideal of warrior, of 

personal prowess. 
Little commerce, .... To ideal of man as member of family. 

2 Pleasure seeking, . . . . Due to ideal of personal pleasure. 

Grew perhaps out of individual free- 
dom of early ideal. 
New impetus to agriculture, . . To old ideal of man as member of 

family. 

3 Objection to agriculture, clergy idle To ideal of individual, selfish aims 

and fluctuating, feuds and re- and their satisfaction, 

venge, serfs compelled by their 
lords to till the soil, . 

4 Trade and commerce, manufacture, To ideal of life of labor and trade, 

rise of agriculture, . . . chiefly conserved in communes. 

Corporations and guilds, . . . To ideal of privilege. 

5 Division of labor, .... To ideal of man as individual man. 
Removal of exaggerated regulations To man as truly man. 

from labor and trade, . 
Fresh opportunities, . . . To ideal of man, in light of newer and 

fuller views of personality. 

Ill — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING TO 
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 

The Teutonic family organization, manifesting the warrior 
ideal, rested on the capacity, or the prospective 
capacity, for bearing arms. Women, therefore, The Famiiy- 
were not members of the tribe. Yet they were Primitive Teutonic 
looked on as man's equals, in courage and mor- 



144 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



ality, and as his superiors even in prudence. They were rev- 
erenced as almost sacred, and were assigned a peculiar power 
and dignity. "Indeed," says Tacitus, "the German thinks there 
dwells in his women something holy and prophetic ; he neither 
spurns their advice nor neglects their oracular sayings." They 
seem to have mediated between the human and the divine. 
" Men are for deeds," was the saying, " and women are for wis- 
dom." And first looked on as sybils, with growing superstition 
they came to be regarded even as goddesses. It is not strange, 
then, that there was an odor of sanctity about the household, 
that marriage was deemed a sacred thing, and that there was 
general purity of life. In the case of a chief, to be sure, more 
than one wife was allowed, as a peculiar honor; for the ruling 
motive in these matters was apparently not moral feeling or 
love, but honor, economy, and dignity. Sentiment had but lit- 
tle place in marriage. Yet above this there shines brightly its 
inviolability and the general purity. Divorces were rare, and 
the punishments meted out to unfaithful wives were public and 
severe. Marriage ties, indeed, were used to cement political 
alliances, and Augustus thought no hostages so trusty and val- 
uable as noble Teutonic women. At a very early stage, wives 
were obtained by capture, but later, though in still barbarian 
times, a price was substituted. Intermarriage was not allowed 
between serfs and free persons. When a free woman married 
a serf, either she was degraded to his level, or he was killed 
and she made a slave, or both were put to death. 

In the family, the father was in control. He was respon- 
sible for the harm done to its members, and for all wrongs com- 
mitted by them. By his position he was also the family high- 
priest. In accord with the physical nature of the ideal, it was 
customary to expose new-born children, if they were sickly, 
though this might not be done after food had passed their lips. 
Likewise, old and feeble men and women were customarily put 
out to die. 

In the brief period of direct Roman influence, the main 
change was in the yielding of the warriors to 
period* 10 " 31 tne excesses °f savage conquest, and to the cor- 

rupting influences of Italy. There was a great 
degeneration in morality ; and this became even more apparent 
in the next era. 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 145 

At least up to 800, divorce sine causa sontica was common. 
The influence of the church in this period was 
predominantly not for the good. Celibacy of Dark Ages 

the clergy was the rule, but it was considered 
more important that the priests should not marry formally than 
than that they should live lives of purity. And when they 
were corrupt, who could advise and reprove the people. Their 
spiritual and moral counsellors were become their examples in 
evil. Another fact which boded ill for the family was the en- 
forcement by Carl the Great of his will, and of the royal tute- 
lage against that of the household. Other authority, both indi- 
vidual and domestic, was made to yield before that of the king. 
We remember that the men of these times were willful and pas- 
sionate, and we are not surprised that, when his strong hand 
was removed, they lapsed into moral degradation greater than 
before. 

But the Feudal system and the growth of the ideal of power 
through position gave a new impulse, though 
indirectly, to family life. The members of his Feudal Age 

family were the only companions of the lord 
through the long winter, so by force he became well acquainted 
with them, and learned to render them love and honor. Hence 
there was a tendency to the development of individual families, 
and toward their purity. Where a man had previously married 
the land, and incidentally obtained a wife, without much thought 
of a "matrimonial " union, now marriage became moralized, 
and the natural ties of the individual family the strongest bonds 
of life. Woman had some choice as to who should be her lord, 
and ultimately she obtained an entrance into the Feudal 
hierarchy. She became, somewhat as she had once been, 
though now on her own account, an object of worship, creating 
the troubadours and knight-errantry. Her presence softened a 
bit the rude spirit of warfare, even so much that knights 
escorting noble ladies were accorded immunity. Yet all was 
not suddenly become upright and moral. The development of 
the family was a concomitant, rather than a direct result, of 
the ideal of Feudalism. Not a few did wrong shamelessly, and 
many castle walls were witnesses of dark unpublished deeds. 
But a large number of the clergy, especially bishops, now mar- 
ried openly, and family life was better and more stable than 
before during the Dark Ages. 



146 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



The rule of descent in the family was primogeniture. 
Some seem to think that this marred the expression of the 
natural Teutonic idea of justice. Rather it was expressive of 
the ideal of the age, which gave precedence to position instead 
of personality. And yet it is true that this was one of the 
grafts of Rome upon the ideal of the Teutonic nations. 

Since the fourteenth century there have been sporadic de- 
velopments of wickedness — in Italy, in Eng- 
Modern land, and in France. They have been, how- 

History ever, the excesses that accompany sudden and 

great advances in freedom. For a little time, 
freedom almost invariably degenerates into license. But 
through all these times of demoralization, in the mainstay of 
civilization — the middle class — there has been a growth in 
morality. And the family relationship has increased in 
stability, as men have come to realize themselves as such, to 
"take themselves seriously." Yet even here the development 
is in process. What will ultimately be produced we do not 
now clearly see. But we believe that there will be, as the final 
manifestation of the ideal of the present period, a general up- 
rightness of family life, an exaltation of its value and position 
in the community, and a widespread purity of individual con- 
duct. 

CAUSALITY. THE FAMILY 



Women not members of tribe, 
Reverence to women, sanctity of 

home, general purity, 
No intermarriage with serfs, 

Control and responsibility of father, 

Exposing weak children and aged 
people, ..... 

Wives by purchase, instead of cap- 
ture, ..... 

Excesses, degeneration, . 

Celibacy of clergy, but only formal; 
general corruptness, 1 

Royal tutelage, .... 



Reaction after Charlemagne, . 

4 New impulse to family life, 

Woman has choice in marriage and 
has entrance into power, 



Corresponds to ideal of warrior. 
To place of family in ideal. 

To same ; reflex of ideal of personal 

prowess. 
To place of family in ideal. 
To ideal as external and physical, i. e., 

of personal prowess. 
To place of family (as a whole) in 

ideal. 
Due to ideal of personal pleasure. 
To ideal of satisfaction of individual, 

selfish aims. 
To same in emperor (though not selfish 

in bad sense). 
To same in people, showing tendency 

away from centralization. 
Reflex of ideal of privilege; also 

Christian possibly. 
To permeation of ideal of privilege. 



1 Remaining of clergy formally unmarried corresponded to the Roman ideal of centralization, 
obtaining to this extent in the church, but not much, if at all, outside. This in only one instance 
of many of a kind. 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



H7 



Knight-errantry, .... To Christian ideal ; and that of privi- 
lege. 

Primogeniture, .... To ideal of privilege. 

5 Sporadic wickedness, . . . Reaction of individual rights ; due to 

ideal of personality, but taking 
form of gratification of desire for 
pleasure and of selfish, sensual en- 
joyment. 

Steady growth in family in general, To ideal of personality. 

The primitive Teutonic state was organized on the basis of 
kin. It was a combination of tribal unity and 
individual independence. The unit of political The state- 

life was the freeman, the son of a free father Teutonic 

and a free mother. He and his fellows in the 
family or tribe resided in one community ; and assembling in 
town meeting, they exercised local self-government. Here each 
man had the right of the initiative, and every one his own 
separate, unofficial, personal weight. The town meeting was 
the seat of all legislative and judicial powers. But it might 
place the latter in the hands of the chiefs, or entrust them to 
assessors whom it elected. Power was then, as we may infer, 
dependent on the franchise of the community, and not on kin- 
ship or noble blood. The chief was always elected in the vil- 
lage meeting, the degree in which he embodied the qualities 
enumerated under the ideal being the criterion of his fitness 
for the position. Should he behave himself unworthily he 
might be deposed also, as he had been elected. He was not a 
king, but only a magistrate. It was his business simply to 
execute the popular will, and so as chief he had no peculiar 
initiative authority. It was, however, expected that he would 
extend the boundaries of the tribe and maintain peace. Yet 
even in war he was mainly a leader. His duty was not so 
much to issue commands, as to set an example of bravery. 

The single village might extend its domain by conquest, by 
federation with other communes, or by off-shoot relationships. 
In such cases, the heads of the whole clan formed together a 
sort of oligarchy. The chief was simply the highest individual. 
Yet here also, he was elected by the assembly of the whole 
tribe. It was the duty of this common moot, as in the single 
village, to choose the tribal leader and to declare war. 

The constitution of these communes shows a tendency, 
because of the necessities of their life, at one time to democ- 
racy and at another to monarchy. The town meetings kept 



148 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



alive the former ; local self-government was the rule whenever 
the nation was at peace. In the assembly, either general or 
local, every freeman in good standing had a right to a place and 
a voice. And while in national questions the oligarchy of chiefs 
might attend to matters of minor importance, all serious affairs 
were discussed in open meeting. On the other hand, in war 
the government came near to monarchy. The chief was the 
supreme leader, followed and obeyed by all the warriors. 

In the domain of the judiciary there was the beginning of a 
legal system. The common test was the ordeal in its different 
forms, and it was resorted to without regard to class distinc- 
tions. The ordinary punishments were death, fines, and mutila- 
tions. In general, justice was done, and the wrong-doer received 
the reward of his crime. 

Another feature of the Teutonic commune was its form of 
land tenure. All the real property of the tribe was apportioned 
in severalty at stated intervals, and then cultivated for private 
profit. So both in government and in land-holding there was 
community, and in the one as in the other the state was 
strongly democratic. It seems hardly necessary to call atten- 
tion to it, yet we may notice that each of these features of the 
early government was expressive of that primitive and rather 
external ideal which we have already described ; an ideal which 
called for warlike bravery and for personal independence. 

The transitional period was one of influence rather than one 
of change. Yet, as the ideal assumed a form 
Period of °f more direct gratification of personal desire, 

Transition we n0 |- e m th e s tate the confederation of tribes 

to increase the barbarian power against the 
Roman arms, and for the invasion of Italy. In the matter of 
law, the barbarians objected to and would not recognize public 
law. They kept their own political customs in the midst of the 
Romans, and every tribe claimed the right to be judged by its 
own laws. There was, therefore, a gradual merging of public 
and private law, and ultimately public law was destroyed and 
rise given to mediaeval polity — so strong was the individualistic 
Teutonic ideal. 

The succeeding centuries (500-1 100) marked the elevation 

of the military chiefs to kingly rulership, and 

Dark Ages the early elective leadership or monarchy was 

finally lost in Feudal Europe. It was, among the 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS i^g 

barbarians, the duty of the victorious chief to divide the booty 
and the conquered lands among his soldiers. After the invasions 
there were, therefore, scattered through the newly-acquired 
territory a number of petty Teuton lords, closely dependent on 
their king — as, for instance, the soldiers of Odoacer had been 
in Northern Italy. 

Ultimately, by reason of the internal jealousies and the 
strife which it engendered, this arrangement destroyed full 
kingship and the possibility of harmony, and free institutions 
and the political rights of freemen soon disappeared before the 
greedy appetite of the lords of the land. In 481, Clovis estab- 
lished the Merovingian dynasty in Neustria, and was able, in 
spite of the efforts of the Austrasian nobility, to develop a con- 
siderable dominion. Under Dagobert, however, the more inde- 
pendent of the nobles in Neustria revolted, and the Austrasian 
Mayors of the Palace became the leaders of Gaul. 1 This decay 
of the monarchy was followed by another attempt at centraliza- 
tion, likewise personal, viz., the establishment by Charlemagne 
of the Holy Roman Empire. During his reign it had much 
power. But by prohibiting national assemblies, while retaining 
the Frankish lords, he, for the time, put an end to European 
liberty. When he died the empire practically gave way, and 
though it continued in West Frankish hands for a century, it 
was little more than a name. The people generally confounded 
the power of the dukes as representatives of the central im- 
perial government with their authority as individual lords, 
and there thus adhered to each duke all whom he could coerce 
by personal force. Though they had been freemen, the people 
were soon enslaved, and the struggle was thereafter between 
the king and the nobles, or among the nobles themselves. In 
987, Hugh Capet was able to bring something of order once 
more out of confusion, but simply by superior power and along 
the old lines. All France became the private estate of the 
king. Yet the Capetian monarchy was not anti-Feudal ; it was 
only a return to a sort of unity in the crystallizing Feudal 
society ; hence its strength. Its only great curtailment of 

1 Incidentally it may be said that the cause of this defection was the taxes which Dagobert 
levied for the support of his court. This was contrary to the Teutonic ideas of voluntary service. 
The Teutons classed taxes and tribute together, therefore their pride was deeply wounded. They 
were ready to render military service ; but they would not pay tribute, when unconquered, and to 
one whose peers they were. 



I^O IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

privileges was the nominal taking away of the right of private 
war. Meanwhile, in 962, the headship of the Holy Roman 
Empire had passed to Otto I of Germany. His dominion, too, 
was essentially personal ; and Italy, under a number of petty 
Feudal lords, was directly subject, more or less, to him. 

In this period and in the next, the Roman church was a 

political party of no mean power. The Holy 
Roman church Roman Empire received its first authority from 
in Politics t j ie p p e> as he placed the imperial crown on the 

brow of Carl the Great. And not a few of its 
succeeding rulers, both West and East Frankish (German), re- 
ceived coronation at Rome. Likewise in the monarchy of Hugh 
Capet, the church stood sponsor for the king. He obtained 
prestige through consecration with the holy oil. He gave pro- 
tection to the church, and, in turn, the bishops taught obedience 
to him as a duty. There was close league between church and 
state. Yet, each sought first its own, and the pope was fully as 
astute and politic as the emperor. 

The early part (500-700) of this present period, was marked 

by the codification of the barbarian laws. 506 
Legal Matters is the date of the Breviary,' the code of Alaric II, 

which was republished by Charlemagne. The 
Salic laws were committed to writing somewhat earlier. In 517, 
appeared the Burgundian code, and in the seventh century the 
Leges Visigothorum. These laws were rather the capitulation 
of former customs than new enactments. Yet they served for 
a long time, in conjunction with Roman law, "written reason," 
as the law of the land. It is characteristic of them, that their 
regulations are not political, but civil and criminal. So in the 
Salic law, there are 363 penal to 65 other articles. This code 
also refers only indirectly to political rights, and that in connec- 
tion with already established institutions and facts. The Visi- 
gothic code is, however, something of an exception. These 
laws were formulated by the clergy in Spain. Roman influences 
were naturally quite strong in them, and so the laws are terri- 
torial and not personal. In the general mind of Europe, never- 
theless, all law was private ; and while a distinction might be 
allowed between public and private law, all that was in force 
was considered to come under the latter head. In matters of 
justice, the principal was judgment by one's peers. The ordeal 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS ^j 

was the common judge for slaves, but freemen were allowed 
simply to swear their innocence. The right of appeal to a 
higher order was recognized, but the lords preferred the appeal 
to arms ; whence arose private wars. 

The year 1 1 oo saw the Feudal system well established, its 
ideal thenceforth to dominate society for at least 
three centuries. Sovereignty in this age meant Feudal Age 

ownership. A suzerain had power over his 
vassals only when he could compel their action. Government, 
so far as there was any, was a very loosely confederated group 
of inharmonious, petty kingdoms. Each baron was a king, at 
once military leader, ruler, and judge. His power was deter- 
mined by the number and strength of his vassals, for his position 
was hereditary, and did not depend on personal prowess. Law 
was customary, determined by each lord, and different for each 
suzerainty, and, many times, for each occasion. In these 
things, moreover, the lord did not confine himself to injuries, or 
what we ordinarily consider criminal actions, but whatever 
could possibly be construed as such was crime against him, and 
served as an excuse for the exhibition of his power. For in- 
stance, he held everyone who passed within sight of his castle 
as in some sense a trespasser, and required from him a tax. 

Theoretically, Feudalism may have been a rather superior 
stage of society, but practically it was organized anarchy. To 
be sure, it had the merit of being nominally entirely voluntary. 
No man became a vassal without his own consent, and no new 
conditions could be imposed on him, to which he did not agree. 
But really, the Feudal organization was a necessity ; the weak 
were compelled to come to the strong and pray, " Defend me, 
defend me." And the devotion of the vassal extended to what- 
ever might be required of him, and was not at all dependent on 
the character of his lord. A sample sentiment is this : " My 
lord, Raoul, is a greater traitor than Judas, but he is my lord. 
I would not fail him for the world." 

In the consideration of this organization of political society, 
our attention is directed rather to France than 
to any other division of Europe. But that the Development in 
ideal of privilege was common to the different France n °* solitary 
parts of the continent, and to England, is shown 
by the almost universal division into parties struggling upon 



152 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



class lines, toward the close of this period. In France, king, 
clergy, and people, were united against the rapacity of the 
nobles. In Spain, though a strong free government was never 
reached, the nobility and the people were pitted against the 
king. In Germany, progress was slower, but the line was 
drawn between the emperor, the clergy, and some of the nobility 
and the majority of the nobility and the people. In England, 
the nobles and the people early wrested their rights from the 
king. Magna Charta marks the year 12 15, and the first Parlia- 
ment 1295. 1 Poor Italy was never, until recently, more than 
half her own, and the church, the communes, the counts and 
the emperor contested for rulership and for existence. 

Two other lines of progress should be briefly traced here, 
though they are not so much characteristic of 
progress in Law this period as they are fore-gleams of the next 
— the development of law, and that of the com- 
munes. It was in the twelfth century that men began to 
study Justinian's code. In the thirteenth, under Louis 
IX, the Roman law was translated into French. And 
the cultivation of these sources and their practical use went 
hand in hand. For instance, it was in the time of Louis IX, 
that judicial combats were abolished — a significant fact in 
Teutonic legal history — and that the right of appeal was 
broadened from Feudal to royal courts. It is worth remember- 
ing, however, that these were only steps in a long process, 
which had its beginning in the recognition of the code as 
"written reason" (a fact of which we have already spoken). In 
the advance there was no scientific selection of laws, or any- 
thing like a regular progression. There was simply the gradual 
assimilation of a principle here, and a maxim there, to the main 
body of customary law. 

The communes were originally formed from the remains of 
the old Roman market towns. By tribute, either 
Development of to the king or to their duke, they purchased 
communes immunity from services, and the right of self- 

government. Nominally, they of course owed 
over-lordship to some suzerain, but practically they were free, 



1 Coming thus early, it might be questioned whether by their date these do not militate against 
the theory which we are presenting. But the answer is to be found in the fact of England's isola- 
tion. Standing apart from the rest of Europe, her development was less interrupted, and she came 
more quickly to the possession of the Teutonic birthright. 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS ^3 

and so highly did the kings value their support in the contest 
against the nobles, that, in some instances, they received their 
charters for some such consideration ; in all cases, they were de- 
fended by royalty against the nobility, and, in turn, they main- 
tained the crown. In France, these communities were the an- 
cestors of the tiers etat. In its essence, each of them was a 
revolt against the Feudal system. Every city was a sort of 
close corporation, consisting of a number of guilds. Men were 
sworn into them as into secret brotherhoods, and to break the 
oath of loyalty to the commune was a crime of the gravest 
kind. The rules of the corporations touched even the 
mimttice of life. Men were allowed to marry whom they might 
please, only after they had obtained leave from the city. Nor 
were strangers permitted to obtain a residence. Everyone 
living within the district of the municipality was compelled to 
take the communal oath, or answer with his house and goods. 
In each community, the population was, as outside, divided into 
estates ; politics was controlled by the merchant guilds. The 
federation of these cities was a very important feature of com- 
munal life. The greatest league was that of the German 
Hanse, which existed about 1250. It was formed for commer- 
cial and political purposes, but was destroyed by jealous dis- 
cords and by the growth of the great territorial monarchies. 

Had it been our object to give in these pages a detailed 
political history of Europe, the next period, even 
more than those which have preceded, would re- Modem History - 
quire lengthy treatment. Many historians have France 
written bulky volumes upon small portions of it. 
Here, however, we are concerned only to show the general trend 
of progress, verifying thereby our thesis, and to touch on main 
and well-known facts. The two political features of the period 
from 1400 to the present are monarchy and democracy ; and at 
its first appearance, democracy was the tyranny of the people. 
In France, in 1500, the prevotal town was the normal muni- 
cipality. There was a representative of the king residing there, 
but the citizens themselves had charge of all internal matters. 
The town meeting was the legislative authority. The officers 
of the city were only executive. But in time, owing to outside 
disorders, and to the creeping in of oligarchy and tyranny, these 
municipal governments decayed. Another form of measurably 



154 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



free government was that of the provinces pays d'etats. These 
had their origin in normal feudal institutions, but were curtailed 
by the growth of monarchy, and by the spread of common laws. 
Nevertheless, they had substantial privileges, and exercised con- 
siderable functions, even down to the time of the Revolution. 
On the other hand, the monarchy was steadily growing. By 
1500, feudal opposition to royalty was practically dead. In the 
Hundred Years War (1339-1453), the monarchy had been crip- 
pled far less seriously than Feudalism, and its increasing power 
was to a large extent the result of this fact. The last great 
Feudal reaction was in the fifteenth century (1422-1483), when 
five hundred princes leagued themselves against the king. 
They were defeated, however, and the kingdom was for some 
time secure under Louis XI. The place of an oligarchy, partly 
aristocratic and partly spiritual, was thus taken by a rational, or 
at any rate, in some sense modern state. 

The Revolution was the great crisis of these later centu- 
ries, but it was not without its early warnings. There were 
complaints of abuses many years before it came — and the 
government seemed willing enough to attend to them. But 
for some reason, either ignorance or willful neglect, it would 
never touch the deep and general sources of the evil. Louis 
XIV added very materially to the unfavorable condition of 
things, when he changed his landed aristocracy into a court 
nobility. Heretofore these lords had served as a sort of buffer 
between the king and the people. But now they were re- 
moved ; the shock of popular commotion reached the throne ; 
and before long, there was revolution. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, what was set up on the ruins of the monarchy was 
an equally unreasonable despotism of the people. From this 
arose confusion, the Committees, the Terror, and Napoleon. 
And from this same fact arises to-day, to some extent, the ap- 
parent instability of French institutions. Nevertheless, it is 
more and more evident that these institutions are being grad- 
ually moulded by the governing modern ideal of all men as 
men. 

In many ways, France is the center of modern political 

history, yet the other nations have as truly 

Glrmany t0nS ~ been concerned in the progressive movement. 

Germany was almost blotted out in the Thirty 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS T 55 

Years War. In the early part of the seventeenth century, her 
borders had been full of commerce and industry. But when 
the war was over, trade and manufacture had gone elsewhere ; 
and they were long in returning. Politically, too, what had 
been one government became 329 separate domains. Only in 
the last century has unity arisen, through the aggressiveness 
of Prussia. And to-day we see for the first time " a Teutonic 
Empire, on Teutonic soil, composed of Teutonic people, and 
embodying Teutonic ideas." ' 

England deserves at any rate a moment's attention. As 
in the years of Restoration, so now, we find 
her in advance of the continent. Sixteen hund- England 

red and eighty-eight we may name as the year 
in which she recovered political and religious liberty. And 
since that time she has been indeed nominally a monarchy, but 
practically an aristocratic republic. 

The American. Revolution should also be mentioned as a 
part of the politico-social movement. Most 
marked, perhaps, in France, this came to a America 

head earlier in America. And it was also really 
present in other forms in England, unattended by the confu- 
sion of war. 

It will not be strange if this hurried survey of the political 
development of Europe not only seems incomplete to the care- 
ful student of history, but does not adequately bear out for some 
minds the problem which we have set ourselves. Different 
men will place the greatest emphasis on different facts. But 
if any one will consider in detail the facts of the history of 
Europe, with the contention of the thesis in mind, we are con- 
vinced that he will be simply bringing new material to the sup- 
port of what we here have been endeavoring to show in outline, 
the parallel development of the moral ideal of Europe and its 
political institutions. 

CAUSALITY. THE STATE 

1 Basis of kin, Corresponds to place of family in ideal. 

Freeman the unit, local self-govern- To individual independence in ideal, 
ment, chief only magistrate or 
leader, delegated authority, 



1 In his " Institutes of General History," President Andrews makes a great deal of this fact, 
considering it as in a way the culmination of an historical epoch ; and it is worthy of more than 
passing notice from the historical student. 



i 5 6 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



Similar in clan government, 

I. e. , Tendency to democracy in 

peace, ..... 

To monarchy in war, . 
Justice, fines, ordeal, 
Community in land-tenure, 

2 Confederation of tribes, . 

Merging of public and private law, . 

3 Military chiefs become kings, . 



Petty lords under or without chiefs, 

various monarchies 
Church in politics, . 
Barbarian laws largely civil and 

criminal, . 



Private law, . 
Judgment by peers, 

Ordeal for slaves only, 
Private wars, . 



Sovereignty is ownership, position 
of lord hereditary, 

No confederation, law customary 
and arbitrary, organized anarchy, 

Universal division on class lines into 
two parties, .... 

Study and adoption of Justinian's 
code, broadening of right of ap- 
peal, abolition of judicial com- 
bats, ...... 

Immunity of communes, their fed- 
eration, ..... 



Self-government, brotherhoods, etc., 



5 Decay and curtailment of free towns 
and government, 
Monarchy solidified, 
Revolutions, ..... 

Despotisms of the people, 

Good republican government by the 
people, ..... 



To same. 
To same. 

To ideal of warrior; its reflex. 

To individual independence in ideal. 

To same, which is, of course, a phase 
of the ideal of personal prowess. 

Due to ideal of gain and gratification 
under warrior type. 

To personal independence in ideal. 

To ideal of personal power ; and to 
working of ideal of man as in polit- 
ical relations. 

To ideal of personal power and its at- 
tainment. 

To same. 

To ideal of bodily strength and safety, 
and of satisfaction of individual 
aims. 

To satisfaction of individual aims. 

To forming ideal of privilege, growing 
out of personal independence. 

To same. 

To ideal of satisfaction of individual 
selfish aims; also to ideal of physical 
power, force. 

Due to ideal of privilege. 

To continuing ideal of satisfaction of 

individual, selfish aims. 
To ideal of privilege. 

To Roman and Christian ideals which 
had been conserved in the church 
and were active chiefly there. 

To ideal of privilege ; also to ideal of 
life of labor and trade, conserved in 
the communes and chiefly active 
there. 

To beginning of later ideal, showing in 
communes in ideal of popular gov- 
ernment. 

To continuing ideal of privilege. 

To same. 

To ideal of man as man, in political 

sphere. 
To still continuing ideal of privilege ; 

and to new ideal, being its reflex. 
To ideal of man as man. 



Once more we go back to the primitive Teutons, and this 

time to trace the progress in religious ideas and 

Rehgion— observances. No doubt the early worship was 

Primitive _ J L 

Teutonic the worship of ancestors, but there were also 

other divinities. The priesthood, as among the 

early Greeks, was not the office of a caste, but an avocation of 

high-born warriors. And by the old custom it fell to the head 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS i^y 

of the house ; he was its priest. Women, as we have already 
seen, were considered the representatives, in a sense, of the 
gods, and their sayings were reverenced and obeyed. Many of 
the tribes, no doubt, offered human sacrifices. There seems to 
have been a feeling that the gods demanded the best, and that 
was life. In similar manner, besides the occasional offer- 
ing of persons on the altar, men exulted in the sacrifice of 
themselves in battle, as their highest consecration, and as a 
means of entrance into the society of the gods. 

Odin, Thor, and Freya are typical deities, and as we think 
of the great hall of the All-Father and of its royal feasts, and 
of the mighty hammer of the Striker, and of the gentler offices 
of the goddess of peace, we note their adaptation to a warlike 
people. And we are also ready to agree with Pfleiderer in 
marking a " strong tragico-ethical element in Teutonic legends 
and beliefs." ' 

The Gospel was first preached among the Teutons by mis- 
sionaries of Arian belief. Aside from doctrinal 
considerations, the picture of Christ and His period of 

twelve chosen followers won their attention, as Transition 

a form of their own comitatus relationship. 
Therefore they the more readily accepted the teachings of 
Christianity. And on their own part, they brought to the 
church, to which they afterward turned from their early Arian- 
ism, a purity and vigor which could do much for it as an organ- 
ization, and a full measure of self-esteem and of assertive power. 2 

Clovis was the first ruler of the Franks to declare himself a 
Christian, and thereafter all the Franks were 
nominally such. About 700, the bishop Boni- Dark Ages— "The 
face, as the representative of the church, labored centuries of Faith- 
very earnestly among the Germans, and is said 
to have baptized 100,000 persons. It was largely through his 
endeavors that Germany was Christianized ; and those who yet 
remained unconverted, Charlemagne won over by force. 

It must be borne in mind that it was not simply the mes- 

1 See International Journal of Ethics, iii : i (Oct. '92), p. 1. 

2 These statements regarding the early influence of Christianity and its adoption by the 
barbarians do not confine themselves, of course, to the strict chronological limits which we have 
made. In fact, the seventh century was one of great missionary endeavor among the Northern 
nations. But the period of transition, which we have elsewhere designated, may for religious insti- 
tutions be reckoned as the time of the contact of Roman Christianity with the Teutonic tribes, pre- 
vious to the years when it commenced to work strongly among them 



jc8 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

sage of the Cross, and nothing more, to which the barbarians 
listened. Much as we honor and respect the early heroes of 
missionary endeavor — and we would not for a moment seem 
to cast discredit upon their fragrant memory — their zeal for 
Christianity was mingled with an ardent love for Rome ; and 
along with the vital Christian truth which they faithfully 
taught, they also inculcated the peculiar teachings of the Ro- 
man church. And we may say in passing that the evil influ- 
ence of many, who bore the name of Christ in the succeeding 
ages, was the fault, not of the religion which they formally ac- 
knowledged, but of the ecclesiastical organization whose repre- 
sentatives they were. Rome claimed the authority to violate 
all the rights of individuals, and oftentimes, when she had the 
power, she exercised the asserted prerogative. 

Thus it was that in 752-6 the temporal power of the church 
was asserted. And the reason for this assertion 
Temporal Power was that the popes felt their need of an outward 
sign to mark their spiritual authority, in order 
that the church might be on an evident equality with the pow- 
ers of this world. 

The great struggle of the period (500-1 100) was that relat- 
ing to investiture. In the early reigns it had been necessary 
for the bishops to support the king, in order to obtain the tem- 
poral honors which they desired, and to acknowledge him as 
their temporal superior. Thus they had come to be invested in 
their sees by him. But the kings soon ceased to let religion 
govern appointments, and allowed their own friendships to 
shape their decisions. Moreover, the wealth of the livings of 
the church appealed to men's cupidity, and young nobles would 
enter the priesthood for what they could get out of it. Churchly 
dignities were even sold. The result was a crowd of incum- 
bents who took the profits but left undone the duties of their 
offices. In the middle of the tenth century the popes and many 
of the clergy were not by any means a ministry of which to be 
proud. Debauchery and simony were the commonplaces of 
papal life and administration. But an improvement in the 
character of the clergy brought them once more the honor and 
reverence of their office. The Isidorean or False Decretals were, 
to a degree, the justification and defence of the papal position ; 
and ultimately, after the experience of Henry at Canossa, the 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS ^9 

right of investiture was formally surrendered to " God, Sts. 
Peter and Paul, and the Catholic Church." It is indicative of 
the power of the church over the people, as well as of the prev- 
alence of ignorance and superstition, that Rome was able to ac- 
complish all these great and far-reaching temporal results, and 
to subdue even proud and haughty kings, with only anathemas 
and interdicts as her weapons. 

This recognition of papal authority was contemporary with 
a general cleansing of episcopal life under the 
direction of Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII. Ten Feudal A ge - 

. r . . r 1 r i Evil Condition 

hundred and eighty-tour is the date ot the tounda- of affairs 
tion of a new order of monks, the Carthusians, 
who preached a return to the purity of the rules of Benedict. 
For thirty years they multiplied in France, Germany, and 
Italy ; and the era of Feudalism began with a church reason- 
ably free from the vices which had previously tainted its life. 

But the change was not permanent. The life of the church 
was in considerable measure of its own times. Intertwined 
with the Feudal system in the extension and increase of her 
temporal power, she also partook of its evils, of anarchy and of 
laxity. Most marked was the latter. The vicious results of 
the teaching of sacerdotal celibacy were fearful in this period, 
and the evil which might be wrought through the confessional 
rose to its greatest height. Nor were the clergy at pains to 
conceal their vices. In the middle of the thirteenth century, 
Pope Alexander IV declared that the " people are positively cor- 
rupted by their pastors," who by their own looseness stimulated 
the already too common laxity of principle. And the popular 
mind instinctively assumed the immoralities of those who should 
have furnished it instruction in the paths of righteousness. 
There seems to have been some improvement for a time, but 
only that the evil might burst out again ; and the lull was due 
rather to restraint than to desire to escape from sin. 

A century later, at the time of the Renaissance, there was 
this same unpleasant sight in Italy. Men made 
much of the hierarchy, and religious feeling was In Italv 

. , - . , . at the Time of 

so strong that the first expressions 01 the new the Renaissance 
artistic style were limited to architecture, for 
fear of the stigma of heterodoxy. Yet there was apparently 
very little connection between the teachings of the Scriptures 



l6o IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

and men's daily lives. Even the clergy were notoriously profli- 
gate. Then the movement spread to the domain of religious 
thought. So pagan did it become that men talked openly of 
leaving the church for Mohammedanism, and prophesied the 
speedy downfall of Christianity. And, humanly speaking, we 
are surprised that their prediction was not verified. Conserva- 
tives were driven to denounce Plato, Averroes, and Alexander 
of Aphrodisia as the three pests of Italy. 

The condition of things in Italy was, fortunately, an exag- 
geration of what befel the rest of papal Europe, 
other In other countries, there were contemporary 

thVRest of Europe facts which promised much more for the future. 
One was the founding of the mendicant orders, 
from 1216 to 1256, a new means for the propagation of Chris- 
tian and papal teachings. Another was the accessibility of holy 
orders, all classes and talents being received. Anyone might 
enter the service of the church — though she denied the right 
of private judgment, and assumed the authority to compel obe- 
dience. A third fact, strongly in contrast with this compulsion, 
was the openness of ecclesiastical discussion and the frequency 
of church councils. 

It is evident from the strongly rationalistic turn of thought 
in Italy, and in general may be inferred from 
Modem History— the fact that the Renaissance, spreading to 
The Reformation other countries, must ultimately have its effect 
upon religious authority all over Europe, that 
the papal power was being slowly undermined. The rise of 
Scholasticism, and of men like Abelard, who would not be co- 
erced, and the prevalence of free inquiry both within and outside 
the schools, boded ill for a despotic power. The Roman 
Church was the crystallization of the Roman ideal with few 
Teutonic elements. The new life, conversely, was to be gov- 
erned by the Teutonic ideal, with a decreasing number of Ro- 
man elements. 

It was in the dawning of such an era that Wyclif came 
preaching in England, in the latter half of the fourteenth cen- 
tury. And when his enemies, in defiance, cast his ashes to the 
waves, they only, to the poet's mind, supplied the physical con- 
ditions, which had already their spiritual and intellectual coun- 
terpart, for a movement that should be bounded only by the 
limits of the seas. 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS ^i 

Then Huss and Jerome of Prague arose, and on the other 
side, the awful tortures of the Inquisition were brought into 
play. We see, on the one hand, the lessening of the papal 
power, the decay of Christian observances, the viciousness of a 
ruling clergy, and the horrors of a rack which only faith could 
defy ; and on the other, the growth of freedom of religious 
thought, the inspiration of life with vital Christianity, a purity 
of walk in the hero-reformers which shines with glorious bril- 
liancy, and beyond, the crown of martyrdom, the reward of un- 
faltering confession. Who can doubt which will conquer ? 

The fire smoulders on, and Tetzel comes to Germany to sell 
indulgences. Luther is aroused, and in a moment of righteous 
indignation nails his theses to the door in Wittemburg. In- 
stantly the smouldering fire is aflame. Hatred to Rome grows 
hotter and infects all the people. The Bible is given out in 
the German vernacular, and one chain of the bondage is broken 
forever. Behind Luther was the intelligence and the moral 
earnestness of the German people, and they, not he, made the 
breach with Rome. 

But that which they desired, they did not obtain. Only after 
much difficulty was the emperor, who was the head, we remem- 
ber, of the Holy Roman Empire, forced to consent to freedom 
of religious belief, and the result, then, was not complete free- 
dom, but the Lutheran church. It was only after the Thirty 
Years War that the question of German religious liberty was 
settled. Really there was little distinction made between truth 
and the form in which truth was held. None the less, there 
was throughout these movements of the Renaissance and the 
Reformation a great change in general religious belief. " Con- 
sciences were freer and devotion was more real and spiritual. 
Life was looked on as in itself worth living, and religion as 
more a personal than a collective matter." 

In England, it was Henry VIII who, for reasons rather bad 
than good, took the first step in breaking away 
from Rome. But it was left for the Independ- The Movement 
ents to complete his beginning, and to vindicate outside Germany 
religious liberty in the colony at Plymouth 
Rock. That handful has leavened the new world ; and those 
who remained behind at home were the nucleus of an increasing 
number who, with varying fortune but with growing success, 



1 62 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



are still laboring for disestablishment in Britain. In France, 
also, the work is not complete, nor has it progressed so far. Un- 
der Philip the Fair papacy fell, and with it, its supporters, the 
Templars. But because he had lost control of the king, the 
pope did not forsake the people. To-day France is a Roman 
Catholic country, and the power of an ecclesiastical hierarchy 
is dominant. But the Gallican church and the preaching of Pere 
Hyacinthe are the protest of a slowly awakening consciousness 
of the right of religious freedom. 



CAUSALITY. 

Worship of ancestors, 
The head of the family is the priest, 
Typical divinities, .... 
Human sacrifices, .... 
Power of story of Christ and the 

twelve disciples, 
Missionary work ; by missionaries, . 
by emperor, 

Temporal power of church and her 
violation of individual rights, 

Degradation of Investiture, 

Corruptness in church, 

Struggle about Investiture was be- 
tween two parties, each animated 

Purity at beginning of Feudal Age, 
Laxity and evil, .... 



Mendicant orders, .... 

Accessibility of holy orders, and 
openness of ecclesiastical discus- 
sion, ...... 

Reformation, ..... 

Opposition to Reformation, 
Pilgrims, Disestablishment, and 
other similar movements, . 



RELIGION 

Corresponds to place of family in ideal. 

To same. 

To warrior ideal. 

To warrior (physical) ideal. 

Due to warrior ideal, and its manifesta- 
tion in the comitatus. 

Due to Christian ideal. 

To ideal of satisfaction of personal 
aims, and force. 

To satisfaction of personal aims. 

To same. 

To satisfaction of selfish aims. 

By same ideal of satisfaction of per- 
sonal aims, though on side of the 
church there was a deeper element. 

To Christian ideal. 

To same as in preceding ; also to ideal 
of privilege as making the clergy 
members of a class, and so secure, 
instead of being so many individual 
messengers of the Cross. 

To Christian ideal. (Wholly ?) 

To same ; also remaining, inherited 
from the early church. 

To ideal of man as man, in religious 

affairs. 
To preceding ideals. 
To ideal of man as man. 



In early Teutonic society the only rigid class division was 
that between free and unfree. Yet among those 
ciass Distinctions who were free, the men who were honored with 
Primitive Teutonic high positions as chiefs, or with membership in 
the comitatus of a chief, might be termed nobles. 
Their dignity, however, carried with it no especial political 
privileges. It is quite evident that the Teutons did not regard 
blood and rank as convertible terms ; and so, in the official no- 
bility of the comitatus, it was bravery and personal prowess 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 163 

alone that were the marks of distinguishing excellence. Among 
these people slavery lacked the harsh sting which it possessed 
among the Greeks and Romans. It was not a vital part 
of the Teutonic organization, but rather an accident of the 
Teutonic state. To them a slave was not an animal or an agri- 
cultural " instrument," but a man who lacked certain privileges, 
and so there was no elaborate cruelty exercised toward him. 
Slaves might, it is true, have been killed in a fit of anger, but 
the same was true of freemen. They were allowed to live in 
their own houses as men, and in some measure of domesticity. 
Yet, on the other hand, if possible, the Germans sold their 
slaves, and there was no strong sentiment against any treatment 
of them. Slaves were distinguished from freemen by short 
hair. Freemen wore theirs long, and there were regulations to 
maintain this distinction. Originally, probably, slaves were 
captives taken in war, but later they were the result of mar- 
riage, of debt (incurred by gambling), or of poverty. 

In the short time of the first contact with Rome, the bar- 
barians saw uses for slaves of which, perhaps, 
they had had no idea, and the result was that period of 

those who had it in their power proceeded to Transition 

follow the fresh examples of selfish enjoyment, 
with the aid of all their slaves. Yet this did not last long, for 
society was too disintegrated in Western Europe for any such 
thing as luxury. The form which it finally took was that of 
making others till the soil, while the lord attended to matters 
of war and pleasure. 

In the early part of this period (500-1 100), freemen were 
divided into kings, nobles, and free-holders. 
How freemen were ranked, the wergild gives Dark Ages 

an idea. By Salic law, the fine imposed for the 
murder of a nobleman was 600 solidi ; of a Roman who had been 
admitted to the royal table, 300 ; of a common Frank, 200 ; of 
an ordinary Roman land-holder, 100 ; of a person who cultivated 
the property of another, 45. By the ninth century, land-hold- 
ing had come to be the important test, and the classes were 
lords, vassals, and under them, vavassors. Peasants who com- 
mended themselves were still called free. But how essential 
the possession of property was may be judged from the fact 
that no man who was not a free-holder could testify against 



164 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

(i. e., judge) a freeman. In this society there were two estates, 
the nobility and the clergy. The latter bore their peculiar 
mark of the tonsure. They had a great deal of power, and not 
only were they commonly reverenced, but ultimately, they 
secured freedom from civil justice and authority. The laity 
below the nobility were classed according to the way in which 
they held their land, as well as by the steps of vassalage. 
There were first, allodial holders, who rendered their lords gen- 
eral homage. There were next, the proprietors of benefices, 
who were dependent on the one from whom they held the land. 
The third class consisted of the occupants of tributary lands, 
who paid rents and services. And last were the serfs who 
were attached to the soil (including the Fiscalins, who worked 
for the support of the emperor). 

With regard to the position of the slaves, these menials 
had been somewhat elevated. They were now, in the eleventh 
century, not mere chattels, but serfs attached to the soil. For 
this change, the church deserves not a little credit. In Eng- 
land, however, there was a regular slave trade with Ireland, 
from 1066 till the time of Henry II, when it came to an end by 
reason of a non-importation compact to which the Irish were 
willing to agree. In Italy the Venetians carried on a similar 
trade with Oriental countries for the luxuries which they could 
thus obtain ; but this is part and parcel of the old Italian 
selfishness, and not the record of the Teutonic ideal. 

In the Feudal epoch, four things of which we have already 

spoken, yet three of them bearing strongly 
Feudal Age the marks of the Age, prepared the destruction 

of the distinctions of caste. Feudal social 
order itself was, without exception, one hierarchy of landed pos- 
session. The upper classes fought and feasted, while the lower 
worked and suffered. But, on the other hand, these four vital 
forces were at work. The first was the church. By its policy 
of receiving whoever might come, whether bond or free, it 
tended to break up both caste distinction among the free-born, 
and the institution of slavery itself. Next were the crusades, 
the glory of proclaiming which belonged to the church, but 
which had results far beyond what the church anticipated. A 
serf was freed on crusading. So he and his lord became better 
acquainted, and a sort of fraternal feeling arose. The conse- 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS ^5 

quence was mutually truer and higher esteem, and there fol- 
lowed, too, extensive emancipation at home. Another unlooked- 
for result was the death of many large proprietors away from 
home, and the consequent dismemberment of their fiefs. This 
worked for the destruction of class distinctions among those 
who were free. In the third place, the rise of commerce 
brought new arts and abilities into demand, and those who were 
able to furnish them, no matter who they were, rose in the 
social scale. Particularly does this apply to the communes. 
The aid which they received in this way was very great. 
In these cities were found practically, all the legal learn- 
ing, technical skill, and business enterprise, and much of the 
ability and patriotism of Europe. They were the hope of the 
future society. The fourth influence was that of the study of 
the Justinian code. As a result of this, in 1256, Bologna gave 
freedom to all within her walls. Louis VII (1137-80) had 
made a similar enactment for France, and Louis X, in 13 15, did 
likewise. In England, Edward I, in 1295, quoting from the 
code, declared that " according to the rights of nature, everyone 
should be born free." In the case of England, this at once freed 
all the serfs on the royal domains ; and it worked on gradu- 
ally till serfdom was finally given up, free labor being also found 
to be more profitable. The serfs became tenants under con- 
tract, and voluntary services took the place of the old servi- 
tudes. 

In the latest stage, in modern history, there has been a 
gradual and more perfect freeing from the 
ideal of class distinctions. Yet it has come very Modem History 
slowly, and its most marked developments have 
been within the limits of almost the last one hundred years. In 
France in the eighteenth century, the nobility had no relation 
to their tenants. They looked on them as only producers, and 
considered themselves immeasurably above them. But the 
French Revolution, which was chiefly a social rebellion, changed 
this. For, aside from the overturning which it produced, the 
larger number of the nobility emigrated, almost at the com- 
mencement of the trouble. In England, since the seventeenth 
century, the tendency has been to vertical rather than hori- 
zontal divisions, to distinctions on political rather than on social 
lines. And the same thing is true to a much larger extent in 



l66 IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 

the United States. In both England and America, in France 
and in Germany as well, the great problem to-day is what men 
call the labor problem, the question of social adjustment. Yet, 
as will readily be perceived, its aspect is somewhat changed, 
and the question is by no means altogether one of rank. While 
the deference which wealth receives is not small, there is still a 
large portion of praise and esteem for a man who is simply and 
truly a man. 

CAUSALITY. CLASS DISTINCTIONS AND SLAVERY 

1 Official comitatus nobility, . . Corresponds to warrior ideal. 
Slavery of certain classes of persons, Reflex of same ideal. 

Good treatment in main, . . To lack of class spirit in ideal, 

2 Slaves made to do all the work, . Due to ideal of personal pleasure. 

3 Kings, nobles, and free-holders, . Remaining from early distinctions and 

therefore due to that ideal; also to 

ideal of satisfaction of personal aims. 
Distinctions based on land holding, To growing ideal of privilege, based 

on ideal of satisfaction of personal 

aims. 
Slaves become serfs attached to the To working of Christian ideal, 
soil, ...... 

4 Hierarchy of landed possession, . Due to ideal of privilege. 
Introduction of voluntary services, To growing ideal of following period, 

and to still remaining satisfaction of 
individual aims. 

5 French revolution, political rather To ideal of man as man. 

than social divisions, abolition of 
slavery, labor problem, 

A few other social customs may briefly come before us. In 

keeping with the barbaric society of early times 

other social were the amusements in which the Teutons in- 

Customs — 

Early Teutonic dulged. Some of the tribes were particularly 
given to gluttony. All of them seem also to 
have had an instinctive hospitality ; anyone might stay as a guest 
for three nights. " Banquets and hospitality, " wrote Tacitus, 
" find such favor as in no other nation." During or after the 
feast, it was the custom for minstrels to sing songs of the 
battle, and such as were calculated to incite the warriors to 
noble deeds. Another " after-dinner " custom was that called 
"flytting," consisting chiefly in the making of taunting and 
cutting remarks with impunity. There was also, at this time, a 
great amount of personal boasting. 

The most besetting vice of the Teuton was gambling. 
Everybody gambled, old and young, women as well as men. 
People staked all their possessions, and then, oftentimes, them- 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS ifiy 

selves. And thus it came about that many slaves had been 
free-born members of the tribe. To the credit, however, of all 
these men and women be it said, that they were honorable in 
the discharge of their obligations ; they paid their debts. 

Another typical custom was that of blood brotherhood, in 
which, by the mingling of their blood, two men of different fam- 
ilies became brothers. With this, as with all other blood rela- 
tionship, there went, first, the notion of mutual peace, and sec- 
ond, the avenging of injuries to blood relations. Some think 
that the wergild was devised to meet these cases, so great con- 
fusion did the feuds due to blood relationship bring on ; and 
the same may easily be true of the ordeal. 

Still another custom, and one of great importance to the 
future warrior, was "the gift of arms." This took place at 
ages varying from 12 to 21, usually about 15. It was the 
formal recognition that the youth was no longer a boy, but 
one who might be called on to defend the tribe. 

Regarding the period from 500 to 1100, we have already 
.noted its intense individualization, and the ex- 
pression of this in the prevalence of private war. Dark Ages 
Another fact peculiarly illustrative of this char- 
acteristic temper, is the local nature of institutions and arrange- 
ments of all kinds. No two suzerains ordained similar customs 
in any matter, except by accident. Another significant fact is 
the number of men who went into monasteries, and of women 
who sought the solitude of convent life. Whatever we may 
think of this as a mark of religious zeal, we can agree with 
Kingsley that it might have been only the use of common 
sense, and done to escape the rack and ruin of the Dark Ages. 
And we may add still further our own idea, that in its seeking 
for comfort and rest for self, it marks that giving up to personal 
ends which characterized all life of this trying age. 

The great institution of Feudal times on which we have 
not touched as yet is Chivalry. In explan- 
ation it goes back to the customs of private Feudal Age — 
war. So disastrous did these feuds become, chivalry 
that, in 1041, the pope declared the Truce of 
God. By its provisions there was to be no private warfare be- 
tween Wednesday night and Monday morning. At first, it 
decreed universal peace between these times ; but that could 



j68 ideals and institutions 

not be maintained. The truce, however, did considerable good, 
though the evil was by no means remedied. Kings and lords 
showed their approval of the plan — for other people, by declar- 
ing various truces on their domains. But they were evidently 
all only restraints. The ideal did not change ; instead, it simply 
sought new fields. So, many went to Sicily ; 60,000 went to 
England with William of Normandy in 1066. Then came the 
pilgrimages which the church proposed, and the Crusades. But, 
after a time, something else had to be devised, and this some- 
thing appeared in the tournaments of Chivalry. They took the 
place of the excitements of private warfare, and blended with 
them the interests of religion and gallantry. In reality, 
Chivalry, which we commonly restrict to these latter, had to do 
with the Crusades as well. Gautier tells us that it "was at 
first primarily religious, turning to Jerusalem long before the 
Crusades. But," he adds, "the Cycle of Arthur and the Round 
Table changed the character to a more effeminate type. The 
result has been in modern times a wrong idea of Chivalry." 
This evidently covers the whole extent of knighthood in Europe. 
So far as what we are saying is concerned, it serves to bring out 
in stronger fashion the religious basis of Chivalry. And, in 
fact, the duties and purposes of the knight were of no mean 
character. From the Rules of Chivalry, 1 we can see that under 
the dominant ideal of privilege there was much that was good 
and pure and true. 

Thus, while men fought for preferment, and boasted of the 
glory of the place which they won in the lists, or of the enemies 
of the church whom they had vanquished, we note that their de- 
sire for victory had been enlisted under the banner of what is 
good and true. And yet this was all simply a taking mode pro- 
posed by the church, partly with a genuine social purpose, and 



1 These are the ten commandments of the knight : 

1 Thou shalt believe all that the church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions. 

2 Thou shalt defend the church. 

3 Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shall constitute thyself the defender of them. 

4 Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born. 

5 Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy. 

6 Thou shalt make war against the infidel without cessation and without mercy. 

7 Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of 
God. 

8 Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word. 

9 Thou shalt be generous and give largesse to everyone. 

10 Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the right and the good against in- 
justice and evil. 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS j6q 

partly with a view to the continuance of its own supremacy — 
a mode for the expression of the still active ideal of the attain- 
ment of individual ends, and for the display of the feudal ideal 
of privilege. 

In our own day there is one social institution, and we will 
not stop to name others, in the waning of which 
may be seen the growth of the modern ideal of Modem Times 

personality. It is that of the court life as the 
rule and example for the country. In two cases, those of 
America and France, this is not true to-day. There is a certain 
community of social institutions, at any rate in the former, 
among all classes of educated people. And while, on the other 
hand, the English people, for instance, care much for the Queen 
and the court, there are some signs of the breaking down of the 
royal prestige there also. 



CAUSALITY. 

I Banquets and gluttony, . 



OTHER SOCIAL CUSTOMS 



Bards, flytting, boasting of deeds, 

blood-brotherhood, gift of arms, . 

Paying debts, .... 

Gambling, ..... 

2, 3 Private wars, .... 

Local institutions and arrangements, 
Many seeking monasteries and con- 
vents, ..... 

4 Truce of God as a restraint, 

Chivalry, ..... 

As only for nobility, 

5 Waning of power of example of 

court life, ..... 



Corresponding to ideal of warrior as a 

physical ideal. 
To warrior ideal. 

To ideal of uprightness. 

(Seems to correspond with the reckless- 
ness of a warrior ideal.) 

Due to ideal of satisfaction of individual 
aims. 

To the same. 

To satisfaction of personal ends; also 
to a Christian ideal. 

To continuing ideal of satisfaction of 
personal aims. 

To Christian ideal, in part. 

To ideal of privilege. 

To ideal of man as man, still increas- 
ing. 



IV — PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS RELATING 
TO INDIVIDUAL CULTURE 

There remain the customs of education, and in them also 
we may trace a development parallel to that of 
the ideal. Among the Teutons, the rule was primitive 

ignorance. Writing, so far as there was any, Teutonic 

was considered to be woman's work — and this 
was the popular sentiment of Europe all through the Middle 
Ages. In the barbarian boys, the chief thing that was sought 
was hardihood and courage. Their training was physical and 



170 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



martial. We find them forbidden to weep or cry aloud under 
penalty of death by drowning ; and we are told that their whole 
education might appropriately be summed up in the learning of 
one lesson, De contemnenda morte. 

In the period from 500 to 1100, Charlemagne made a serious 
effort to establish common education. So 
500—noo strong were his ideas on this matter that some 

maintain that his reign, could it have been con- 
tinued, would have been the beginning of modern history. He 
instructed the clergy, who were the only learned class, to take 
care of the education of the people and of the reviving of litera- 
ture and the arts. And in order to this, he admonished the 
ecclesiastics themselves to resume their studies, with which the 
social confusion had seriously interfered. These reforms, how- 
ever, were not very widespread, nor were they stable. Affairs 
were still in too great turmoil for scholarship, and the people 
cared but little for knowledge. Soon after Charlemagne's time, 
even the clergy returned to their own ways. For instance, a 
collection of German songs, which he had made, was declared 
an ungodly book and ordered destroyed. 

In the years 900-1100, however, there was the beginning 
of the Scholastic movement, which was really the conserver of 
intellectual activity down to modern times. By the ingenuity 
of its fantastic speculations, if by nothing else, it served to keep 
alive the philosophic instinct of Europe. 

In educational matters, the great advance of this time was 
that commonly known as the University Move- 
noo-1400 ment. In 11 50, Oxford and Bologna were 

founded ; 1200 is the date of the universities of 
Paris and Salamanca. Yet here, the continual scholastic 
quibblings are typical of the age, and the ideal of privilege 
made a great deal of trouble, as it did in politics. We must not 
make the mistake of thinking that there was at this time a pure 
and genuine literary interest. It was not till the demand was 
made, not by the voice of one man, or by the desire of a few, 
but by the needs of all, that there was a revival of letters. 
There was little love of literature for its own sake. The zeal 
was rather to transform pagan works for Christian uses, as the 
palimpsests testify ; or to destroy them altogether, as works of 
the devil. Yet it is in this age that we have the rise of poetry 



TEUTONIC IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS i y l 

and of the modern theater, as well as of the universities. 
Scholasticism continued till after 1600, but it received its death 
blow from Bacon and Descartes. Slowly, but surely, the princi- 
ple of observation took the place of its sophistic reasonings. 

In the instruction of children, in each of these ages, the aim 
was to make men such as their fathers were. 
In the Dark Ages after Charlemagne there instruction 

was no study or learning, except in the monas- 500—1400 

teries ; and we can imagine how the boy was 
trained to his father's place, and had no ambition for anything 
more. If the story of the young Alfred learning to read is a 
picture of education in the palace, what was it in the country 
outside ? In the period of Feudalism the same was true, save 
for the growing intelligence of the dwellers in the Free Cities. 
The Crusades, howeater, stimulated the minds of those who 
fought for the Holy Sepulchre, and a number of influences con- 
spired to cause an intellectual awakening. Now it was that 
the work of the Universities and of the monasteries began to 
show, and it was the sparks which they had kindled that burst 
forth into the brilliant discoveries of Copernicus and Christo- 
pher Columbus. 

The new ideal of man as man, which was the gradual out- 
growth of the old age of Feudal Europe, has in 
modern times been accompanied by a most Modem 

marvelous advance in learning and in common Education 

education. Where one or two were acquainted 
with the elementary branches, now scores and even hundreds 
and thousands have passed far beyond them : and where men 
only were trained in intellectual matters, now the education of 
women and co-education are the rule. The state, by the estab- 
lishment of public schools and universities, has been able to 
offer to everyone the opportunity of intellectual improvement. 

The specializations of manual and scientific training for 
particular vocations, instead of a general culture preparatory 
for life, mark one extreme of the educational tendency. It 
does not seem, however, to be a final stage. For the number 
of people who recognize the value of a thorough education in 
any walk of life is constantly increasing, and it is being re- 
cruited in part from the ranks of those very specialists. Yet 
the other idea must run its course. Not before then, in matters 



172 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



of education, can we approximate to the ideal of symmetrical 
development, the dream of Froebel — an all-round man. 



CAUSALITY. 

1 Physical and martial, De contem- 

nenda morte, 
Writing given over to women, . 

2 Instability of Charlemagne's innova- 

tions, ... . 

3 and 4 Boy to be like father, 

Scholasticism, .... 

Scholastic quibbles, 

4 Growing intelligence in Free Cities, 
University movement, 

5 Revival of learning, 

Principle of observation, 
Common education, of men and 
women, ..... 
Kindergarten, .... 

Specialization, .... 



EDUCATION 

Corresponds to warrior ideal. 

To same. 

Due to ideal of satisfaction of indi- 
vidual selfish aims. 

To working of ideal of privilege. 

To ideal of privilege, as intended to 
prove the truth of its positions. 

To continuing ideal of individual satis- 
faction. 

To early growth of new ideal. 

To ideal of man as man, in intellectual 

matters. 
Of every man as man. 
To same. 

Of person as person in fullest sense. 
To same) in its extreme in the indi- 
vidual. 



For Summary, see following chart : 



XT- 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



of education, can we approximate to the ideal of symmetrical 
development, the dream of Froebel — an all-round man. 



CAUSALITY. 

1 Physical and martial, De contem- 

nenda morte, 
Writing given over to women, . 

2 Instability of Charlemagne's innova 

tions, ... 

3 and 4 Boy to be like father, 

Scholasticism, 

Scholastic quibbles, 

4 Growing intelligence in Free Cities, 
University movement, 

5 Revival of learning, 

Principle of observation, 
Common education, of men and 
women, ..... 
Kindergarten, .... 

Specialization, .... 



EDUCATION 

Corresponds to warrior ideal. 

To same. 

Due to ideal of satisfaction of indi- 
vidual selfish aims. 

To working of ideal of privilege. 

To ideal of privilege, as intended to 
prove the truth of its positions. 

To continuing ideal of individual satis- 
faction. 

To early growth of new ideal. 

To ideal of man as man, in intellectual 

matters. 
Of every man as man. 
To same. 

Of person as person in fullest sense. 
To samej in its extreme in the indi- 
vidual. 



For Summary, see following chart : 



CHART OF TEUTONIC 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 



PERIOD 



Primitive 
Teutonic 



—400 A. D. 



Warrior. 

Personal prowess and 
independence. 

Fidelity, courage, 
purity. 
External. 



INSTITUTIONS 



Subjugation of Nature 



Material Welfare 



Home ; some com 
fort, little luxury. 



Common Occupation 



Romano- 
Teutonic — 

Transitional 
too — 500 
(circum.) 



Warrior, and Personal Reveling in Roman 
Gratification. | luxury. 

Yet man in political 
relations. 
External. 
(Influence rather 
than change.) 



Dark Ages Satisfaction of Selfish 
I Aims. 
500 — 1100 Individualistic. 



War, hunting, work 
<>f smith. 

1 merce, 

Women am 
farm and home 
work ; also 
writing (?), cob- 
bling, and tailoring. 



War. 
Pleasun 



Family 



Woman sacred ; 
man's equal in cour- 
age and morality ; 
his superior in wis- 
dom and prudence. 

Marriage sacred ; 
household also. 

Little sentiment in 
marriage. Purity of 
life. 

No intermarriage 
between slaves and 
freemen. 



General rudeness and 
poverty. 



Restoration 0/ 
Order- 
Feudalism 



Privilege and Position. Feudal castle. 



Individualistic. 
Ambition for power. 
Personal rights. 
Truth-speaking; 

liberality; 

frankness. 
External. 



ration in mo- 
rality. 
Yielding to corrupt- 
ing influences of 
Italy. 



Feud and revenge for 
all who have the 

Agriculture for serfs 
and others who are 
driven to it. 



Revolution and 
Re-adjustment ; 
Modern Times 



Latent ; 
In communes: pop- 

rnment 
and a life of labor 
and trade. 
In church : equality 
and social unity. 



Some luxury, but no 
elegance. 
Wretchedness among 

peasants. 



Man as Man. 
Conscious realiza- 
tion of personality 
in intellectual, relig 
ious, political, and 
social affairs. 

A person as a per- 
son. 

Self-conscious. 



Broader diffusion of 
movable wealth. 

Inventions and dis- 
coveries. 

French Revolution 
allowed greater ma- 
terial welfare ; pro- 
gress in this line 
most prominent. 

Modern discoveries. 



Warfare. 

Crusades. 
Business of armorer 



Rise of commerce 
and manufactures. 

Restrictions of guilds 
and corporations. 



Corruption. 

Celibacy of clergy 
works harm. 

Celibacy more im- 
portant than purity. 



Greater purity. 
Higher thought of 
marriage. 

Knight-errantry. 
Many clergy marry 
openly. 
Primogeniture. 



Development in Sporadic immorality. 
r of occupa- In general, growth 
dons, of morality. 

Division of labor. Increased stability of 
Freedom of labor and and respect for f anti- 
trade, ily relation. 



RELATING TO 



Organization 



On basis of kin; free- 
man the unit : local 
self-government ; 
aly the ex- 
ecutive and leader. 

Power dependent on 
franchise of com- 
munity. 

Community of lands 

Justice by ordeal. 



Confederat 

tribes. 
" Personality of 

law." 



of 



Individual attempts 
at centralization by 
the Merovingians, 
by Charlemange 
(Holy Roman Em- 
pire), and by Hugh 
Capet. 

Growing power of 
church. 

All law in force con- 
sidered to be pri- 
vate ; judgment by 
peers ; ordeal for 
slaves. 

Private wars. 



Feudal system. 

All forms and actions 
local and occasional 

Law customary. 

Division generally 
into two political 
parties which strug- 
gle for rights and 
power. 



Study of law. 

Judicial combats 
abolished. 

Communes ; each a 
revolt against Feud- 
alism. 



Establishment of 
centralization, i. i 
monarchy, and of 
government by the 
people, i. e., democ- 
racies and repub- 
lics. 



Religio 



Worship of ancestors, 

1 >ds. 
No priestly caste. 
Human sacrifices. 
"Strong tragico-ethi- 
cal element.' 



Caste — Free and unfree. Comitatus 
nobility. Bravery the criterion, not 
blood. 

Slavery — An accident. Treatment 
not harsh. 

Custom — Hospitality; some gluttony; 
minstrelsy; "flytting" and boast 
ing; gambling ; paid their debts ; 
blood-brotherhood ; " gift of arms." 



Preaching of Christ- 
ianity by Arian and 
Roman mission- 
aries. 



Increase in number of slaves ; 
tilling the soil. 



Growth of papacy. 

Assertion of tempor- 
al power and strug- 
gle over investiture 
right finally given 
up to the church. 

Debauchery and si- 
mony among clergy 



Evils of Feudalism 
in church ; deprav 
ity among clergy ; 
restrained some- 
what. 

Mendicant orders. 



Accessibility of holy 

orders. 
Openness of ecclesi 

astical discussion. 



Sol i.il Customs 






Education 



General intellectual 

ignorance. Writing 

(?) for women. 
Physical and martial. 
Object : Hardihood 

and courage. 
Lesson : De contem- 

nenda morti-. 



Estates — King, nobles, and clergy. 

Also freeholders ; land essential. 

Lords, vassal, and vavassors. 
Slavery — Slaves raised to serfs at 

tached to the soil. 
Custom — All institutions local. Many 

flee to monasteries and convents. 



In general the same. 



General aim : 
To make children 
like fathers. 

Affairs in too great 
confusion for schol- 
arship, although 
Charlemagne advo- 
cated it. People did 
not care. 

Beginning of schol- 
asticism. 



Caste — Hierachy of landed possession. 
Working for its destruction were : 
accessibility of churchly orders, cru- 
sades, rise of commerce, study of Jus- 
tinian code. 

Slavery — Many serfs freed in Eng- 
land. Serfs in other countries become 
tenants under contract. 

Custom — Chivalry : at first, religious ; 
later, light, to gallantry. 



Scholasticism. 

University move- 
ment. 

Rise of poetry and 
modern theater. 

Good work in mon- 
asteries. 

General aim much 
the same as in last 
period. 

Growth of principle 
of observation. 



The Reformation. 

Religion more a per- 
sonal than a col- 
lective concern. 

English Reforma- 
tion. 

Independents. 

Progress of Disestab- 
lishment in Britain. 

Gallican church in 
France. 



Caste — French Revolution a social re 
hellion. Division on political rather 
than social lines. Great question to 
day, that of social adjustment. 
Slavery — General abolition of slavery 
Custom — Waning of power of court 
over common life. 



Renaissance. 
Advance in learning. 
Common and public 
education. 

Education of women. 
Technical education. 
Kindergarten. 



CONCLUSION 



A few words by way of conclusion to what has been said in 
these pages. History, on the face of things, has been dealt 
with in a most cursory way. But the aim has not been to re- 
write the facts. Rather we have hoped to show that history is 
moral ; that it has a living moral inwardness, just as our con- 
duct has to-day ; that institutions have, historically, a moral 
side, and a moral reason for their existence ; and that, in fact, 
the true history is not in what institutions present, so much as 
in what they manifest. 



AUTHORITIES 





METAPHYSICAL 


Alexander 


Moral Order and Progress 


Aristotle 


Nichomachean Ethics 




Politics 


Bluntschli 


Theory of the State 


Comte 


Positive Philosophy 


Conway 


Morality of Nations 


Dewey 


Principles of Ethics 


Erdmann 


History of Philosophy 


Green 


Prolegomena to Ethics 


Harris 


Hegel's Logic 


Hegel 


Philosophy of History 


Jodl 


Geschichte der Ethik 


Kedney 


Hegel's Aesthetics 


Lieber 


Political Ethics 


Lotze 


Microcosmus 


Mackenzie 


Social Philosophy 


Maurice 


Social Morality 


Muirhead 


Elements of Ethics 


Schurman 


Ethical Import of Darwinism 


Spencer 


Data of Ethics 




Politics 




Sociology 


Stephen 


Science of Ethics 



Andrews 

Brace 

Eliot 

Encyclopaedias 

Erdmann 

Geffcken 

Labberton 

Mann, H. 

Seaman 

Wickoff 

Willson 

Wilson, Woodrow 



HISTORICAL 

General 

Institutes of General History 

Gesta Christi 

Liberty of Nations 

Britannica 

International 

History of Philosophy 

Church and State 

Outlines of History 

Ancient and Mediaeval Republics 

Progress of Nations 

Four Civilizations of the World 

Outlines of History 

The State 



Greece 

Benn The Greek Philosophers 

Burnet Early Greek Philosophy 

Duruy History of Greece • 

Davies, J. Hesiod and Theognis 

Dyer Greek Religion 

Eschenburg Manual of Classical Literature 

Felton Greece, Ancient and Modern 

Gardner, Percy New Chapters in Greek History 

Grant Ethics of Aristotle 

Grote History of Greece 

Guhl and Koner The Life of the Greeks and Romans. (Also Rome) 

Herodotus Works (Cary) 

Homer Iliad. (Lord Derby's translation) 

Macy Hellenica 



A UTHORITIES 



175 



M aha fly 



Perry 

Schliemann 
Smith, William 

Taylor, T. 
Thucydides 
Verschoyle 
Zeller 



Becker 

Bury 

Cicero 

Church 

Duruy 

Farrar 

Gibbon 

Hatch 

Horace 

Inge 

Juvenal 

Livy 

Mommsen 

Montesquieu 

Niebuhr 

Plutarch 

Polybius 

Seeley 

Seneca 

Smith, William 

Uhlhorn 



Bryce 

Duruy 

Emerton 

Guizot 

Gautier 

Gummere 

Hallam 

Kaufmann 

Kingsley 

Lecky 

Lea 

Maine 

Martin, Henri 

Milman 

Miiller 

Smith, T. 

Storrs 

Tacitus 

Verschoyle 

West 



Huth 
Manley 
• Thwing 



Old Greek Life 

Old Greek Education 

Social Life in Greece 

Greek Life and Thought 

Greek World under Roman Sway 

Problems in Greek History 

History of Greek Literature 

Records of Various Excavations 

History of Greece 

Classical Dictionary 

The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries 

Ancient Civilization. (Also Rome) 
Outlines of Greek Philosophy 

Rome 
Gallus 
Later Roman Empire 

Roman Education 

History of Rome 

Darkness and Dawn 

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 

Organization of the Early Christian Churches 

Odes. (MacLeane's ed.) 

Roman Society under the Caesars 

Satires 

History of Rome 

Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans 

Rome 

Lives 

Roman Imperialism 

Essays 

History of Rome 

Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism 

The Teutons 

Holy Roman Empire 

History of the Middle Ages 

Introduction to the Middle Ages 

History of Civilization in Europe 

Chivalry 

Germanic Origins 

Middle Ages 

Socialism and Communism in their Practical Application 

The Roman and the Teuton 

Development of European Morals 

Sacerdotal Celibacy 

Village Communities 

Histoire de France 

History of Latin Christianity 

Political History of the 19th Century 

Mediaeval Missions 

Bernard of Clairvaux 

Germania 

Modern Civilization 

Alcuin 

Also 

Marriage of Near Kin 
Woman outside Christendom 
The Family 



IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS 
THEIR PARALLEL DEVEL- 
OPMENT 

i* 

JOHN ERNEST MERRILL 



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